Maturity
by lose
Summary: It was something neither had expected, but both had secretly wanted. The question remained: where exactly did something like that lead? The answer: perhaps not where either was expecting. Rated T for adult themes.
1. You're Important

**Chapter 1: You're Important  
**

My breath was hot. I was panting like a dog on a hot day as I fumbled at the buttons on my uniform. For future reference, doing anything, let alone something like _this,_ in a supply closet tended to heat up the room rather quickly.

"…I should get going," I said after finally managing to finish fastening the buttons on my shirt.

I instinctively rubbed my hands across the pleated material to smoothen it out and make it look at least somewhat normal. My uniform never looked amazingly pristine, and I never took amazing care of it, but still, it was better to be safe than sorry.

"Relax a little bit. I already made sure there was no one around."

Her voice was sturdy, but held an odd quality to it. A vague hint of exasperation maybe.

"I am relaxed," I responded.

I wrinkled my nose at the smell of flint and smoke, as I began looking around the small room. "Where are my pants?"

It was kind of hard to see in the practically lightless room, but the black of my uniform slacks against the white tile should've stood out enough for me to pick up on it probably. It was surprising that I couldn't find them with just a quick glance around.

"Over there," she said, her head flicking to somewhere on her left. Her voice sounded funny with a cigarette gripped between her teeth.

I reached behind her, and by way of touch, finally stumbled upon my pair of crinkled pants. It was carelessly draped over one of the metal racks, one leg curled up messily while the other was hanging over the side. I couldn't decide if it had been put there purposely or had merely ended up there after our clumsy entrance.

I frowned as I noticed the dust and dirt that had accumulated on the backside. Most of the loose particles fell off with a few swipes of my palm, but there was a thick layer of grime and whatever else that stained it nastily and wouldn't come off.

"You didn't put them there did you?" I asked after a second.

"Hm? Your pants?"

"Yeah."

"Mm, maybe. I tossed them wherever. Why?"

"Never mind." I turned away from her and looked down at the pair of pants in my hands. No matter which way I scraped or scrubbed, the ugly stain was still there.

"They're completely ruined, that's all."

She shot me an interesting expression as she puffed smoke out of her mouth. One of her eyebrows rose questioningly.

"Oh? Bring them over here. Let me take a look."

I looked at her, but after a second, did as I was told and walked a few steps over towards her. She took the pair of pants, her hands turning it over a few times as she examined it. As she nodded and inspected the material, she breathed out again, a cloud of smoke forming around her mouth before disappearing altogether.

Her sudden puff of tobacco reminded me that I would once again be smelling like ash and nicotine for the rest of the day.

"Yup, this pair is ruined. Looks like some bleach or detergent spilled on that shelf earlier and your pants soaked up the brunt of it." She stirred suddenly, wrapping her bra around herself, and clasping it behind her. Even in the dark room, it was easy enough to see the definition and voluptuous shape of her mature chest. "I'll order a new pair for you, free of charge. What size are you again?"

"30/32," I answered.

I suddenly felt like a small child. A child whose mother was picking him out a new pair of jeans after he accidentally ruined his by playing just a little bit too rough. In a perverted sense, something like that was exactly what was happening.

"Mm, that's surprisingly small. I always took you for bigger, but I suppose that was just the bedroom eyes," she said with an amused tone. Her shoulders shrugged.

I rolled my eyes, but I doubt she could see them in the dimness. "Pants size and whatever you're talking about have little to do with each other."

"Oh, is that so? Well, I suppose you're the expert, with your having had one total partner in your lifetime and all. I'll just have to take your word for it," she breathed out sarcastically.

I doubt my face showed it, but I hated it when she made comments like that. There were so many reasons that I hated it in fact, I don't think I could count them all if I really tried.

I ended up ignoring her statement and after a short bout of silence, decided to bring up something that actually had to do with what we were talking about.

"So what am I supposed to do in the meantime? Parading around school without pants is definitely going to raise suspicion. That is if it doesn't land me in jail first."

She chuckled quietly as she slid her own pants around her ankles and began to do the buttons on her shirt.

"Just put them on. Don't tell me you're afraid of getting a little bit of soap on your ass. If anything, it'll help wash off the smart attitude you keep hidden down there."

"Bleach can be used as a substitute for soap? Huh, I've been doing it wrong all this time."

"That's exactly what I'm talking about, right there." She waved her hand at the air in a ridiculous looking gesture. "Anyways, I told you I could get you a new one, so stop your complaining already."

I merely gave a half of a grunt in response, and snatched up the pair of pants that she had discarded to the ground.

This whole conversation seemed sort of ridiculous to me actually. Not a particularly bad ridiculous, but just absurd in a sense. I mean, gaming the system for free pants because I ruined them during an illicit encounter? Absurd. Still, I suppose that was one benefit of doing something like this with a person of authority.

I suddenly had the urge to laugh sardonically but I settled for a neutral expression instead.

"I'm gonna get going. The others are probably waiting for me." I said without looking over my shoulder. I slipped on my socks, and then my shoes, and at that point, I was pretty much ready to leave. For the most part, I looked like I had before, give or take a couple of shirt wrinkles and misplaced hairs.

"You certainly seem eager to leave today." She laughed humorlessly. "Can't wait to get away from me?"

"Nah, that's not it," I responded. "Yukinoshita and Yuigahama would get suspicious if I didn't show up though. I already told them I'd eat with them."

"But you also told them that you had to see me about something first didn't you?" She finally stood up to her full height. In the dark room, it seemed as if she was towering over me, which was odd because she was only a few inches taller if anything.

I nodded.

"Right, well there's your excuse right there. You were late because I kept you behind in my office to talk about something or another." She smiled one of those lopsided grins that seemed so characteristic of her. "You just lost track of time because you find me so positively enchanting."

Her eyes sparkled deviously under the low lighting and her hands that were rearranging the silky black hair behind her slowed.

"I'm not sure how credible an excuse is when it's used more than three times." I bandied back.

"It's not an excuse when it's true." Her tone wasn't questioning or anything. It was declaring what she had said as the irrefutable truth. She flipped her wristwatch once. "There's still fifteen minutes before lunch ends. That's a lot of time, you realize."

Was it though? Lunch lasted for thirty-five minutes. If I had to walk all the way over to the special building in the crowded hallways, it'd probably be too late to make any decent progress with my book, let alone finish all of the food that Komachi packed for me in my bento.

I shrugged. "Not really. Barely enough time to finish my lunch at all."

"But plenty of time for you to fuck me again."

I stiffened up. I couldn't help but turn to face her with slightly wide eyes. This wasn't anything that I didn't see coming, but in all honesty, I'm not completely sure I'd ever get used to hearing her talk like that.

She laughed. "Ah, don't look at me like that. I know you have another one in you, and I can't say that I was completely satisfied with earlier. I've been feeling restless all day."

She stood from where she was leaning and walked over to me, grasping me by my elbow, and dragging me back towards the corner again.

Her arm traced over mine as she leaned in closer. Before I knew it, her lips were on mine and we were kissing. A soft moan came from the back of her throat as she tore at my shirt in an attempt to undo all of my hard work. I gripped her around her waist.

It felt good. No I couldn't lie, really good. But there was something, an odd prickling at the back of my head that told me I shouldn't be doing this. That actually showing up to club for once would do more to throw off their suspicions than an essay full of excuses ever could.

"Wait," I breathed out between kisses, trying to peel my lips from her soft, moist ones. But for all my efforts, she was persistent and kept pulling herself closer to me. Her scent was intoxicating as always. I couldn't get more than a few syllables out of my mouth at a time. "I… think… really… should… head," I murmured.

The wet slobbering of her mouth was hard to talk through, but there were worse ways to be interrupted I suppose.

She pulled away suddenly, leaving me slightly dizzy.

"Don't ruin the moment Hikigaya. You can leave when we're done here." She said suddenly.

Like before, her words didn't leave much room for argument. She leaned in to capture my lips again. Not that I was in a particularly argumentative mood with her tongue in my mouth anyways.

"Don't… worry about… it. I… always… take care of my… responsibilities." She whispered against my lips, her words much softer this time.

And suddenly I found myself unable to say no. Whatever I was feeling earlier was all but gone now.

Hiratsuka-sensei was a beautiful woman. She was definitely a beautiful woman, I told myself.

* * *

 _[3 weeks earlier]_

The Autumn Fair was one of the biggest and most important events during the year for Sobu High. It was a night for fun; a total reprieve from schoolwork and simply a night to hang out with friends and play a couple of cheap games at the booths that were haphazardly set up. Aside from the games, there were drinks, food stalls, and even a ton of vendors that sold whatever random items seemed to be popular that particular month. Keychains, a slathering of otaku-related merchandise, and those weird Destiny characters that were stretched out to look like little loaves of bread were just some of the few things that were sold there. I still don't get why, but for some reason those things always made an appearance at these types of events.

But if you really wanted to know my opinion on it, it was that this thing was basically a knock-off version of the Matsuri festivals that would pop up around Chiba every once in a while. This particular school-ordained event was essentially that though, but shrunk down proportionally to compensate for the less than stellar budget that Sobu High reserved for these types of extracurricular celebrations. It went without saying that I hadn't gone to the previous year's festival and I wasn't planning on going this year either.

The point is though: The Autumn Fair was a big deal for everyone else, and the excited chattering and squeals that came from the students around me proved as much.

"Alright, alright. Settle down everyone. I'm going to begin class in a few minutes, so take your seats if you would."

The woman at the front of the room spoke loudly to the students that were standing around idly in the desks in front of her. Despite what she said however, most of the students who were talking beforehand continued doing so, albeit in slightly softer tones.

"I said seats!" Her eye twitched visibly as she roughly slammed her folder on the surface of the podium to create a harsh slapping noise. That got their attentions though. Every student rushed to his or her seat and plopped in without saying another word. "That's better. Next time anyone tries that, it'll be detention."

My eyes that peered over my novel's edge flicked back down to the printed words in front of me. I shook my head in slight disbelief. Harsh, sensei, harsh. She certainly sounded like she was a in a bad mood.

Hiratsuka-sensei wasn't a bad woman by any means, and certainly not a bad teacher. Despite her occasional outbursts, which unfortunately in my cases usually included a harsh dose of physical punishment, she was actually a pretty great person. I wouldn't go so far as to say that we were friends or anything, but she played the mentor role well for me. Be it personal or "professional" problems (club stuff), she usually seemed to have the right thing to say. Even when she didn't, she would at least ask the right questions; questions that would let me figure out things on my own.

But yeah, where was I going with this again? She was a good person… a decent teacher… and she had quite the body for someone her age… Wait, no no, that last part wasn't relevant to what I was talking about.

Ah, Hiratsuka-sensei was a good person, but she was harsh and rough around the edges. She smoked like an old American action-hero, drank like a European, and cursed as much as or even more than any sailor I ever knew. Also, she couldn't get married despite her dozens (hundreds?) of attempts at doing so. I didn't fault her though; all humans had their issues. If I expected her to be anything else than what she was, that would just be me projecting my fantasies onto her, and that would just be unfair for the both of us. Me, because my fictional standards are just way too high, and her because she didn't deserve to get compared to a cardboard cutout that I had constructed in my mind after watching too many unrealistic animes. Maybe it was her imperfection that allowed me to get so close to her in the first place.

I probably wouldn't have opened up as much as I have to a teacher who seemed completely perfect in every regard. Hiratsuka-sensei's flaws reminded me of my own flaws, which reminded me that even a person; especially a person who seemed to have it as together as she did by first glance, was in reality about as pathetic as I was. Maybe a tiny bit less pathetic, because she had a job, but close anyways. It was the fact that she was a flawed person that let me connect with her. By that logic, her imperfections were her best qualities, yep.

"Hikigaya."

"Here." I answered with a slight raise of my hand.

She smiled a small smile at me as she checked my name off from her roll-sheet, shaking her head somewhat incredulously while she did so.

I stared at her somewhat dumbfoundedly. Was there really so much amusement to be derived from me answering to my name being called? It honestly made me a little bit uncomfortable to see her react to something so minor that I did. It was a small thing, but still embarrassing. It seemed that she possessed the uncanny ability to make fun of me for whatever I said or for any action I took. I rolled my eyes that were hidden beneath my folded arms.

Class droned on as usual. Hiratsuka-sensei _did_ make the lessons a lot more interesting than they otherwise would have been, but any way you cut it, discussing formatting and the syntactical structure of the Japanese language was always a bore… and a chore. A chore-bore.

All I could do to pass the time was sketch idly in my notebook or mentally hum that one English Evangelion song in my head over and over again. I started off taking notes, detailed ones at that, but that got old way too quickly. After deciding that I'd grown completely tired of that damned melody and, after filling up all the blank space in that particular notebook page, I decided to let my eyes wander around the room.

They focused on the usual things: my shoes, Tobe's dumb bleached hair, Miura's chest, Yuigahama's chest, Kawasaki's chest, the community chest… (For propriety's sake I would like to note that I actually didn't look at any of their chests; I wasn't _that_ terrible-mannered (it'd be too easy to get caught given where I was sitting)).

I let my eyes drift around the room for a while, observing the postures of my other classmates. Some were asleep; some jotting down notes hurriedly as if the information they heard would somehow vanish like smoke in the air, but most were doing something along the lines of what I was doing. Looking around the room with bored expressions on their faces. It was only when I noticed a couple of students, all male now that I mention it, looking towards one particular spot in the classroom that my curiosity was piqued.

A kid in the corner of the room (Yamaguchi was it?) who wore a pair of cheap looking black glasses was practically drooling. His spectacled eyes were fixed on something… I tried to adjust my gaze to see what he was seeing, calculating for angle and wind-resistance and everything, and that's when I saw what he was looking at.

I'd never seen something that round. That perfectly shaped… My eyes that were seemingly restless just a second ago must have finally found something worth looking at, because they paused. The contours over the tight black material of those slacks were captivating. I mean, the slacks themselves were nothing if not completely professional. They covered up everything and pretty much left it all to the imagination. But oddly enough, that only seemed to make it look _better_. The mystery was in the modesty, or something along those lines. There was a reason nuns were so sexualized in media. But regardless, I was frozen at the sight. I couldn't peel my eyes away.

Of course what I was talking about was Hiratsuka-sensei's butt.

She was leaning over the whiteboard, writing down a novella's worth of advanced kanji on the green surface, her arms stretched out towards the top and her vest practically taut over her shoulders. It looked like she had discarded her lab coat over the side of her desk's chair.

It wasn't that I wasn't observant or anything. In fact, I prided myself on my abilities of observation. I'd always known that Hiratsuka-sensei had a… nice body. I guess I just never took all that much time to flat-out ogle it though. I wasn't a pervert; that was just another part of myself that I was proud of. But now that I had been roped into staring at it… well, yep. Her ass was pretty amazing.

"And… done. Copy down these kanji in your notes everyone. You're going to need to know them for the quiz on Friday." She said as the sound of chalk on board suddenly stopped. I blinked as she turned around, my fingers accidentally fumbling the pencil that was lodged in my hands onto the floor. "Speaking of which, the principal wanted me to remind you that the Autumn Festival is also this Friday."

The perfectly tranquil atmosphere of the class that had persisted a moment earlier was shattered as everyone broke into a round of whispers at Hiratsuka-sensei's comment.

"Now, now. Quiet down. Yes, you're probably all excited, but don't forget, school comes first." She said with her hands on her hips. "It would be in your best interests if you took the time to finish your papers early so that you won't have to scrape and scratch the night before the festival to get them done. That being said, I'll be accepting your essays early this week in anticipation of that. I'll take them as early as Thursday if you have them."

I heard groans from around me as she spoke. I too wanted to bang my head against my desk out of frustration. It was already Tuesday and for all my hard work at my computer last night I now had approximately… nothing done.

"Think of it as an early Christmas present maybe. Or if you prefer, an Autumn Festival bonus from yours truly. Whatever the case, get them done people." she clapped her hands.

' _Thanks sensei.'_ I thought sarcastically. _'You're practically a saint.'_

A couple of people motioned to stand and pack up their bags, but were interrupted by Hiratsuka-sensei's loud voice.

"Stay seated everyone. I wasn't finished yet." She glared sternly at the offenders who then shuffled back into their desks. She looked at us quizzically for a second before continuing. "What was I… Oh, that's right." Her tone suddenly seemed to sour for some reason, and her face twisted a little bit.

"The Autumn Festival is this Friday as I'm sure you're more than all aware. I'll be running a booth there, so feel free to come look for me. I'm not going to tell you which one I'm operating, but if you come by with a poem using the structure I just discussed," She paused to point a solitary finger at the chalkboard. Her butt was once again in view. "I'll consider giving you extra credit. If it's good of course."

Luckily for me, extra credit was the one thing that I didn't need. At least not for this class. My grades in Modern Japanese were high enough—second highest in the class actually.

Ah, yet another good excuse to NOT go to the festival (as if I needed any more of those).

"Okay, you're dismissed. Enjoy the rest of your day." Hiratsuka-sensei said to conclude the lesson, and subsequently the class.

Everyone began to pack up and before long, most were out of the classroom.

"Hey Hikki, ready to go?"

Yuigahama came up to me and whacked me lightly with her bag. I rubbed at my shoulder irritably before responding.

"Ow. If you're going to hit me, could it at least be for something that I deserve? I haven't even answered you yet. But yes, I'm ready."

"Shaddup already. You're taking forever."

I shook my head at the characteristically pointless comment that Yuigahama made. I didn't like being the first one out the door, or even one of the first ones out the door. If you were in too much of a hurry, it made people think that you had somewhere urgent to be, which I didn't. And they knew I didn't. So if I were to leave early, everyone in the room would probably think that I was simply trying to look cool and important as if I had a pressing business meeting to get to or something (In reality, I doubt anyone cared one way or the other). But that was seriously my reason for waiting to pack up. Was it stupid? Probably.

I picked up my scattered notebooks and loose-leaf papers on my desk before stuffing them into my bag. The couple of pens and pencils that were scattered about my desk were ushered into my bag as if I were wiping crumbs off a dinner table.

"Alright, done."

I stood up and straightened out my uniform before turning to address Yuigahama. However, where I expected to be met with one girl, I was instead met with two girls. Well, one girl and one much older woman.

"Heading off to club you two?" Hiratsuka-sensei asked us as she paraded over to my desk.

"Eh?" Yuigahama turned around to face Hiratsuka-sensei before recognition dawned on her face. "Oh! Yup! Well, we would be if Hikki wasn't taking forever."

I rolled my eyes in a none too subtle gesture. "A minute less of sitting and sipping at tea with Yukinoshita isn't going to suddenly end the world." I responded sarcastically. I couldn't help it. Why get annoyed at me over something so pointless anyways?

Hiratsuka-sensei chuckled slightly. I noticed that she had put her lab coat back on. "Well, it looks like it'll be several minutes less today. Hopefully that doesn't end up doing us all in." she joked. I looked at her inquiringly. "I need to see you in my office Hikigaya. Not for too long, just a bit. We need to talk about something. Something important."

Even though her tone sounded slightly serious, she was smiling.

Odd.

Yuigahama looked at her with a puzzled look on her face. "Something important…" she murmured. "Did another e-request come on the computer?"

"No no. It doesn't have to do with the club." Hiratsuka-sensei waved her hand in dismissal.

At this point, I was completely curious myself. By the way she said it, it didn't necessarily sound like what she wanted to talk to me about was bad… but the discrepancy between her expression and tone when she said what she said made me question myself. Huh, Hiratsuka-sensei, you're an enigma if nothing else.

"Yeah, sure. Let's go." I said with a shrug.

Looking around the room, it was apparent that every other student had made it out of the class at that point. The only ones left were the three people standing around my desk: me, Hiratsuka-sensei, and Yuigahama.

"Oh…Okay Hikki. Then I'll see you after? Yukinon said she made teacakes again, so you shouldn't make us wait that much you know."

I was strangely touched by the idea that they'd wait for me before they started eating. I nodded.

"Don't worry Yuigahama. I won't keep your precious Hikigaya away for too long. It'll just be a short chat," Hiratsuka-sensei said with a smile.

Yuigahama immediately seized up and her hands spastically wavered back and forth in a hurried motion. "It's not like that! I don't actually care _that_ much about Hikki! It's just… rude I guess, if you start without everyone there and all." Yuigahama responded in a fluster, her cheeks slightly pink already.

 _So should I be happy or shouldn't I? Somebody spell it out for me so I know how to feel please._

"I know what you meant. This brat doesn't deserve to be treated so well after all." Hiratsuka-sensei responded. Suddenly she grabbed my head in a choke lock and began rubbing her knuckles against my hair.

OW! I could hear the strands at my scalp being twisted into unnatural positions as her curled fingers raked across my head.

"Ow, ow, ow. Stop please." I cried out until I was finally released from Hiratsuka-sensei's surprisingly muscular arms.

Yuigahama smiled awkwardly as I rubbed gingerly at my damaged head.

After we made it into the hall and Hiratsuka-sensei locked the door shut, Yuigahama said a final farewell and took off for the special building.

"So what's all this about anyhow?" I turned to face Hiratsuka-sensei before voicing my question.

"We'll talk about it in my office." She responded before sticking her hands into her coat pockets. She started walking through the hall that was bathed in the rays of the late afternoon sun, and I followed after her with a shrug.

* * *

"I can't believe you dragged me all the over here to talk about this. You said you had something _important_ to talk to me about." I said with an air of slight disbelief.

She flicked at her zippo lighter a few times to light her cigarette. Her feet that were perched out across the small coffee table suddenly were brought to the floor as she sat up straighter.

"Come on, I'm asking as a personal favor." She said after her first drag. "You can't just let a woman suffer when you have the means to help her. That's just ungentlemanly."

I rolled my eyes—something that I found myself doing more often than lately when it came to Hiratsuka-sensei. It was deserved in this case though.

"I'll gladly admit to being ungentlemanly if it means getting out of this." I said as I turned my eyes away from her.

The small room we were sitting in was one that I was more than familiar with. Two simple small couches, a coffee table, a cabinet, an ashtray, and a set of windows were what occupied my immediate surroundings. This was the intimate little sitting area that Hiratsuka-sensei took me to so often to discuss real-world issues and other relatively important things. That's why in this case, I was surprised that she would pull out all the stops, including bringing me here, only to ask me such a ridiculous thing.

"Hey now. Don't make me pull the superior officer card on you. As your teacher, I could simply force you to help me. The fact that I'm actually giving your opinion any weight speaks volumes for my character." She said.

"Yeah. Volumes of how rotten it is." I answered snidely. She didn't like that. She glared at me, and I could practically feel her sizzling forehead from where I was sitting. I coughed once before continuing. "You haven't hesitated to pull that card in the past. Wasn't it you who practically forced me under threat of suspension to join the Service Club in the first place?"

She had the gall to laugh at that. "Yes, but you needed discipline and companionship. I did you a favor and I think deep down you know that."

The only thing I could do was shrug. Yukinoshita and Yuigahama weren't the worst people in the world by any means. There was a chance that maybe one day, I might even call them my friends. But that still didn't change the fact that I had been forced into what could essentially be summed up as an indentured servitude.

"And now you're cashing in on that favor and expecting me to go along with your plan?" I asked.

"Well, that _would_ be fair, wouldn't you agree?" She smiled again, a warmish sort of smile that made it kind of hard to keep up my sarcastic attitude.

"Maybe." I responded noncommittally.

I didn't exactly have a good response to what she said so I gave her a vague, and altogether short, answer.

"Hikigaya," she said softly.

She suddenly turned to face me head on. Her eyes were looking in my direction unabashedly. I found myself unable to resist as I turned my own eyes towards her. Looking at her like was the least I could do after she had addressed me so directly and gently.

"Please?"

Her pleading tone caught me slightly off guard I had to admit. I wasn't used to hearing Hiratsuka-sensei practically beg like that. The thing was, this whole thing wasn't even a big deal either. I could think of way worse ways to spend your night than working a booth by yourself. (Okay, not all that many, but one of them was definitely being forced to work a booth while in _my_ company). That's why I was so confused why she wanted me to join her in the first place.

If it were up to me, I wouldn't set foot a mile near the Sobu High fields during the Autumn Festival. Way too many crowds, way too much noise. Basically way too much fun being had without me. Naturally, I'd want to steer clear of a place like that. But what she was asking of me… to work the booth alongside her… that would eliminate any semblance of peace I was hoping to have on my Friday evening. It would be bad enough having to even _attend_ the festival itself, but having to _work_ a booth and being forced to the beck and call of a bunch of idiots? You couldn't pay me to do something like that. I guess it made sense that nobody was paying me, or her for that matter, at all.

She was basically being strong-armed by the principal into running one of the booths to save on the already skimpy budget. I mean, I could sympathize with the administration though. Why would I possibly outsource when I had access to a bunch of free labor already? Force the teachers to run some booths, maybe offer them a free meat skewer for good benefit… and oh yeah, threaten to fire them if they refused. It was a good business model, even if it was kind of cruel. And all of a sudden, Hiratsuka-sensei's bad mood from earlier made perfect sense.

I couldn't say I wanted to do this. At all. But… didn't I owe her though? I didn't want to have to, but didn't I? Yeah, I did. There was no changing that she'd done more for me than I'd done for her in the past. She gave me advice, guidance, and whatever else it was that responsible senseis imparted onto their students.

But of all the things she could've asked for help with… it was something like this. The damned Autumn Festival. I was tempted to choke out a cry, but decided against it. Looking into her pleading eyes made it hard to do anything but what she had been so desperately hoping I'd do this whole time. Agree.

"Fine." I said in defeat.

She clapped her hands suddenly, a big grin splaying out across her face. "I knew you'd see it my way." She leaned back into her chair and once again plopped up her long legs on the coffee table.

"You know you could've asked the club. You know, force Yukinoshita or Yuigahama to pull their weight for once. I don't see why I'm the only who's being punished here." I grasped at straws, or at the very least for an explanation. Truth be told, her request seemed to fall into the category of what she would normally consider service work. And I didn't want to hear that she didn't want to bother us over something so trivial, because she had consulted us many times in the past for things that were much stupider in comparison. Much.

"Huh?" She asked suddenly, her eyes widening slightly for whatever reason. She looked like a deer in headlights. What, had she not even considered that possibility at all? As the counselor for the service club, you would think she'd have thought of that idea even before I did, but it wasn't so. I wasn't surprised. "Ah, the club? It'd be too much of a bother. After all, I only need one volunteer really. I'm not running a daycare or something. It's a small booth."

She went and did it. She said she it was a bother.

"Well, it's a bother to me too you know…" I grumpily muttered. "I think Yuigahama would be better suited for this type of thing anyway. It might give her practice for the minimum wage job she's going to be doing when she graduates from high school."

Okay, that was a little harsh, but I was just ribbing at Yuigahama. No harm, no foul.

"Ah, but there lies the problem. Yuigahama doesn't take to directions all that well. It would be way more trouble than it's worth just to try to get her to do an acceptable job. You, at least, have some experience doing grunt work with all those part-time positions you've held."

 _Don't remind me._ Those weren't fun times.

I threw out the other name. "What about Yukinoshita? Yukinoshita's both smart and capable. She'd probably end up running the whole thing too if you'd let her." I paused slightly. "Or even if you didn't." I added.

"That's the problem. She's too commanding. If the principal stopped by my booth and saw that one of the students was doing all the work in a booth that I was supposed to be in charge of, he'd think I was lazy. Bastard might even cut my pay or something." She narrowed her eyes. Clearly she and the principal weren't on amazing terms. "You, on the other hand, are just the right amount of subservient to do what's necessary while also making me look good in the process."

 _How flattering..._

"Wow, you make it sound like I'm perfect or something." I said.

"Well, for this type of thing, I suppose you are." She smiled crookedly, her grey eyes sparkling a little bit as she did.

I was effectively cornered. She had decent reasons for why the other two wouldn't be good candidates for the position, even if it was obvious that she made them up right on the spot. I breathed upwards to clear a strand of hair that was hanging limply in front of my eyes before speaking. Here comes the Hail Mary.

"Couldn't you just suck it up for one night though? You said it was a small booth. How much work could there be that would require two people to man it?" I asked.

Surprisingly, she looked slightly miffed at that. She folded her arms across her chest in a stiff gesture. "If you're really so opposed to it, then I'm not going to force you to do it. I'm your teacher, not your babysitter," she said. The last part sounded a little bit bitter.

I immediately felt guilty. I'd already agreed; I wasn't really trying to back out of it, just poking and prodding to try and find out why she found it so imperative to recruit me specifically for this dirty job.

"Sorry. I didn't mean it like that. I already said I'd help, so I'll help."

Her rigid posture softened slightly. Her folded arms spread apart slowly and she sighed out.

"Thank you." She eventually said. We sat in silence for a few moments, and I tried hard to focus on anything but sensei's face. Oddly, she apparently seemed to be trying hard to focus on everything that wasn't not my face.

"What I said about the other two not being good fits for the job is true…" She started after a beat. Another cigarette had found its way into her hand again somehow without my noticing. "But, if you _must_ know… The reason I want you in particular to help me is because... we're close."

I looked up at that, my eyes catching Hiratsuka-sensei's. She looked rather earnest as she said it despite the smoke that she blew out after she finished. She closed her eyes and shook her head a little bit after I made no motion to say anything. She spoke again after a moment, her eyes opening to once again meet mine.

"Yukinoshita and Yuigahama would probably be fine choices too, in all honesty. Heck, I could call my cousin over from Kagawa if I really had to. But…" She paused for a second, as if she were trying to find the right way to say something. "But I'd rather choose you every time."

I bristled at her comment.

"Why?" I asked suddenly.

She seemed to react to that somewhat as she shifted slightly. "Fufu. What, are you going to make me spell it out for you brat?" She asked almost incredulously. I nodded.

Her sudden burst of humor died down suddenly and she was left with a quizzical expression on her face. She gulped.

"Well… you know." She cleared her throat. "When we talk… we have interesting conversations. I… um. Despite our age gap, I can talk to you about whatever and we can always brush it off and laugh afterwards. Even the serious stuff." She trailed off slightly, her voice growing slightly softer. "I mean, spending hours alone watching high school couples stroll through campus with their arms linked and making moon eyes at one another would get tiring for anyone after a while right? I mean this way… At least if you tag along with me, we can poke fun at them together."

It was kind of strange listening to her talk like that. But I understood what she was getting at, despite her sudden subject change to her disdain for couples. She was insecure; it wasn't the first time she was like this. She didn't like having to watch couples hanging off each other's arms and professing their loves for everyone else to see. And that was exactly what these types of events were for. Glorified date spots for madly in love highschoolers to attend and use as a stage to broadcast themselves. I couldn't say I liked them much either.

But essentially, Hiratsuka-sensei wanted me to keep her company because she felt that we connected with each other pretty well. I wasn't going to disagree with that; we did. I liked the conversations I had with Hiratsuka-sensei, even, no especially the ones that seemed like they were too inappropriately deep and philosophical for the situation—but they never were. They were just two conversations between two individuals who had some good ideas to share. They actually never seemed too entirely out of place, even if we went from talking about manga in one sentence to the nature of human relationships the next. They were fun.

"I don't know what it is Hikigaya, but there's just always been something about you that I find so interesting." Her face looked earnest and completely absorbed in thought. "Whatever it might be though, the fact is you're a good listener, and a fun person to hang around with. _That's_ why I asked you to help me out."

And I was sold. How could I not be when she was saying something as cheesy and sentimental as all that?

She stopped abruptly, and her tone got slightly harsher. "Don't read too much into it or anything though. You're good company is all." She pointed out.

"You're not bad company either." I shrugged. And it was true, she wasn't.

She grinned and wrapped her coat around herself. "Alright, I'll text you the details and everything later then. You should get going to club. You know, before they get upset about you being too late and all."

"Right. I guess I should." I stood up and grabbed my bag off the floor. I added, "So do I get extra credit for this or something?"

"Ha. More like a demerit if you don't do good enough of a job." She gave me an amused grin, and breathed out through her nostrils as if she found what she had said to be overly amusing. I rolled my eyes again.

"Being forced to entertain you for a night _and_ possibly screwing up my grade? This really is a great arrangement for me isn't it?"

She chuckled but didn't say anything after that. I took it as my cue to leave. As I made it to the doorway and gripped at the rectangular knob to open the door, Hiratsuka-sensei called out.

"Oh yeah, you're going to need to wear something nice. I don't want you to embarrass me."

"Me embarrass you? I'm the one who's being forced to spend all night with his teacher at what basically amounts to a carnival."

There was no insult or retort like I was expecting, but instead just a small chuckle. It was airy and light and altogether very pleasant to listen to. I smiled slightly and closed the door behind me. I walked out of the office rooms, and made it out into the hallway before I stopped completely.

Oh god, I was going to be working a booth for the Autumn Festival. It was only as I was walking away that I realized just what I had gotten myself into.

* * *

 **AN:** Phew, so pretty much wrote all of this in one day. The formatting and characterization isn't going to be nearly as strict in this story as in MOL. Planning for this to be a three/four shot.


	2. The Autumn Festival Pt 1

**Chapter 2: The Autumn Festival pt. 1  
**

The rest of the week passed by in no spectacular fashion. The same old same old happened. I went to school, stopped by club after, and either ended up walking or biking home after the day was finished. I spent my evenings in my room doing homework or lazing around on the couch until my parents came home and kicked me off so they could watch their late-night game shows. I'd usually eat dinner with them when they ordered take out, but with Komachi out and about so often these days, I'd usually resort to eating cup noodles or fixing up something simple for myself when my parents came home without food and passed out immediately. The life I lead wasn't a bad one by any means; I wasn't complaining. My existence was comfortable, if not a little bit boring.

But the week that had just concluded wasn't really what was occupying my mind. The main thing that was bothering me right now had to do with the itchy material that was currently cutting off circulation to my head and digging annoyingly into my neck.

I looked at the mirror as my hands fumbled at the buttons of my shirt. The dress shirt that I was trying so desperately to get on was a dark navy blue color. I normally saved these types of shirts for incredibly special occasions. You know, parties, or get-togethers with friends, whatever. So it went without saying that the shirt was still stiff in its original condition, and because it was still stiff from the chemicals or starch or whatever that they injected to preserve the cotton, I was unbelievably uncomfortable as I struggled just to get the thing on.

When I finally finished, I took a look in the mirror. It was by all accounts my shirt; it was one of the few that I had actually bought for myself and not at all a part of the giant clothing pile that my mom would dump on my bed every few months for me to try on. I'd picked this one out on a whim while idly hanging around downtown one time. It caught my eye and I liked it, so I decided to get it. Naturally, you would think that the shirt would look at least decent on me, seeing as how I'd picked it out personally, but obviously that was far from the case. I looked like I had stolen it from a closet that belonged to someone who was much larger than me. The shirt hung over me loosely, and with how stiff it both looked and felt, I looked like a clown. A clown was definitely the right word to describe my appearance. It could be worse though. There were worse places to look like a clown than at a carnival.

' _Oh yeah, you're going to need to wear something nice. I don't want you to embarrass me.'_

I scoffed to myself and I could see my lips flap a little in the mirror. At the very least I _tried_ to do what Hiratsuka-sensei told me to, even if I did end up looking dumber than I would have by just wearing a simple t-shirt and some jeans. At least she couldn't say that I didn't try.

I peeked at the clock on my nightstand. The red LED letters said: 5:37. Still a decent amount of time before she expects me.

I pulled out my phone to take a look at the texts that she had sent me the day before. I was decently certain I had remembered the correct time, but on the tiny off chance that I was wrong, at least this way I'd be able to course correct before I got a verbal (and probably physical, come to think of it) lashing for being late.

My thumb slid back and forth on the screen until I reached the messages icon. I opened it, pulled up Hiratsuka-sensei's bubble, and let my eyes search over the screen for a second until I got to the right part.

' _Be on the fields no later than 6:30. The booth were running is going to be somewhere near the southside so start looking there first'_

'And you can't just tell me which one it is? I don't feel like stumbling around like an idiot for half an hour before finding you'

' _Dont ruin my fun. What would life be without some surprises to keep you on your toes? ;-)'_

' _Besides itll be fun to watch you walk around awkwardly for a while! Haha!"_

It wasn't fair. It wasn't often that I got a chance to text with anybody outside of my family. And when finally; finally I did, I ended up having to deal with nonsense like this. It was fittingly ironic that the person who texted me the most often was Hiratsuka-sensei herself though. She probably didn't have anybody else to text either, so she had to get all the cheekiness out of her system when dealing with me. I didn't quite know how she managed to pull it off, but she was even more annoying over the phone than in real life.

I continued scrolling with my fingers.

'Right... Can you at least tell me what to look for? Like is it a food booth? Drinks? Games?'

' _Dont sweat the small stuff. Just be there at 6:30 and youll figure it all out later'_

' _Oh yeah, dont forget to wear something nice'_ Read 9:37 PM.

And that was the end of the conversation. I clicked my phone off.

I'd decided not to even bother asking her for more info. After all, there weren't that many booths; I was sure I could find her after a little bit of looking. It still didn't change the fact that her inability to give me simple directions was annoying though. I was helping her out of the goodness of my heart, and she was still jerking me around (not like that). How typical.

I plopped down on my bed. So I was right that I had some time to kill before she wanted me to show up to the fair. If I recalled correctly, the actual fair itself started at seven thirty, but she wanted me to come early to help set up the finishing touches—whatever those might turn out to be. She'd at least told me that most of the stuff was already taken care of beforehand; that the booth was set up by some volunteers and that the only thing I'd really have to do was operate it and keep her company. On paper, it sounded like the simplest thing in the world, showing up and taking the tickets or whatever of some annoying kids, and heading home after. But with the advent of crowds also came the inevitable feeling of suffocation and claustrophobia. There would probably be way too many people there, and it'd be loud and annoying and generally a pain in the ass, not only just to navigate through but also just to endure in general.

I guess Hiratsuka-sensei's company might end up being the saving grace of my night after all. Which was ironic because I was originally contracted to be hers.

It wasn't long before enough time passed that I felt comfortable enough to finally start heading over to the event. I grabbed the cash that my mom had left on the top of my dresser, and I stuffed my phone into my pocket. One last look in the mirror to see that my hair didn't look completely terrible and I was ready.

 _Did I mention I really don't want to do this?_

* * *

I decided not to ride my bike to the festival, mostly because of the inevitable crowds that were guaranteed to amass there. Even though I was technically coming early, it was more than likely that the bike racks would probably already be completely filled up by the time I arrived. If I were to take my bike, I'd have to end up tying it around a post or something far away from the school just so I didn't get ticketed by some random rent-a-cop that was hired to patrol the event.

Drunk teenagers were another thing to consider. When teenagers were loitering around the event, they were bound to get into trouble, and a lot of times that meant them doing dumb shit like stealing whatever they could get their hands on. The last thing I wanted was for my bike to be a casualty in their stupid tale of reckless youth.

Anyways, I didn't mind walking. Walking gave me an odd sense of calm, and let me relax a little bit before stepping into the brave new world known as the Autumn Fair. Plus, it allowed me to stretch my legs and exercise, and this way I wouldn't have to worry about anything except for what I had on my person.

Keeping it simple. Keeping it real. That's the Hachiman way, you know?

Step, step, step. Walk. Cross the street, avoid the cars. And I was golden.

From the crosswalk I was standing at, I could already see the outlines of what was soon to be the fully in-swing Sobu High Autumn Festival. The vast majority of the booths were practically done being set up, and everything looked almost ready to go. The event as a whole already looked pretty good under the glare of the near-setting sun, and it would undoubtedly look even better once night fell and all the lights were turned on.

When I finally made it onto Sobu's largest field, I marveled somewhat, despite myself. I couldn't say that what I saw was exactly what I was expecting.

There were rides… Rides were set up. Big rides too; there was a variant of the spinning tea cups ride, very much so reminiscent of the one at Destinyland, one of those spinning machines that would make you puke your dinner out if you rode it too many times, and even a (surprisingly decent-sized) Ferris wheel. All in all, the Autumn Fair actually looked… dare I say it, fun.

Of course there were also a ton of food, drink, and game booths set up as well. As I began to walk around, I noticed there was a fried octopus stand that looked particularly appetizing, and there were of course plenty of drink stands that offered smoothies, and milk teas, and thai teas, and chai teas. But no tai-chi, however.

All in all, what I was seeing kind of reminded me of the fireworks festival that Yuigahama and I had attended during the summer. Of course there were slight differences, like the appearance of carnival rides, among other things, but they were comparable at the very least. The whole thing gave off a pretty busy atmosphere, not so much hectic, but that was probably only because there weren't any guests here yet. Once the guests, and their parents, siblings, uncles, and great grandfathers began to show up, I highly doubted I'd even be able to hear myself think with how loud and raucous it was going to be.

I continued walking through the field, my foot making sloshing noises in the slightly dewy grass as I did. There were some fun things though, aside from the rides of course. In addition to the usual carnival-type fare, there were some photobooths, an inflatable bounce house that I was assuming was for the younger guests, and to my surprise, they even had one of those stands where you threw baseballs at milk jugs to win prizes. I'd thought those things only made appearances in anime or American romantic comedies, but lo and behold, there it was sitting right in font of me.

I was kind of intrigued. Maybe I'd play it later. After all, my mom didn't give me a wad of cash for nothing. I didn't want to blow it all on dumb fair games and food or anything, but I owed it to myself to at least try and enjoy myself tonight.

I walked around for what felt like an absurdly long time, and it was then that I realized that this event was actually really big. I'd always known Sobu's main fields were pretty damn large, but this actually felt like a proper festival both in size and design. Either the budget was upped dramatically for this year's fair, or it was simply my cynicism speaking when I'd told myself that this event would be amateurish and crappy. If the previous years' festivals were this good, then I felt just the _slightest_ twinge of guilt for not at the very least checking them out. My head swished back and forth as I absorbed the atmosphere around me.

I saw plenty of booths and attractions, but nowhere in my line of sight did I see a certain thirty-year-old teacher of mine, despite how carefully I looked. Like I'd said would happen earlier, I ended up walking around awkwardly after a while, my hands in my pockets and my rotten eyes shifting left to right in an attempt to find my booth. Luckily there weren't many people around to see me though, aside from the people who were finishing setting up the stands and those that were preparing to step in to run them.

It wasn't until I heard a loud voice call my name that the night really begun.

"Hikigaya! Over here!" A feminine voice erupted from somewhere to my left, and I turned my head to face the source of that noise.

My eyes fell upon Hiratsuka-sensei, who was leaning against a wooden pole. Unsurprisingly, a lit cigarette was caught in her fingers. She was wearing jeans and a form-fitting brown leather jacket.

Upon seeing her, I immediately started walking towards her and nodded my head in greeting. "Yo."

"So, looks like you finally found me. Sure took long enough." She said with a puff and a laugh.

The nerve of this woman. And this after she refused to give me even the barest of clues on where to start looking.

"And why do you sound disappointed about it? You weren't the one who was forced to walk around like an idiot for twenty minutes." I said in response. She merely chuckled, but didn't offer a rebuttal.

I took the chance to look around. From what I saw, it looked like the booth that we were going to be running together was… a used book booth. My god. I almost wanted to laugh out loud then and there. And maybe a snicker did find its way out of my mouth.

"…Used books? Really." I tried to keep my voice even but I could tell there was a little bit of amusement leaking out there.

She groaned slightly. "You don't need to tell me. Imagine my shock when I was told I was being forced to run a bookstand of all things. You'd think I'd get something kind of fun at the very least, but I get stuck with this crapshoot instead." Her pouting lips looked oddly comical with the cigarette in her mouth. "I've said it once and I'll keep saying it as long as it holds true. Life ain't fair."

Amen to that. If life were fair, or at the very least uncruel, I'd be sitting at home, grinding away at monster hunter or taking a relaxing bath right now. Anything but this.

"That's a weird thing for a teacher to say. Especially a modern Japanese teacher no less," I began. "I was under the impression that all teachers thought books were supposed to be holy or something. You know, they represent the pursuit of knowledge and whatnot."

She scoffed. "Psh, that's probably _exactly_ what I'd say if a student came up to ask me about it. But you know that's all bs," She laughed. "Books are books. You read them to learn stuff. And it's not like we're reading them or anything here. We're selling them, and I challenge you to find anybody who'd rather do this than work the batting cages or any of the good stuff."

'Oh, so there were batting cages.' I thought. 'Keeping that in mind.'

"That's really hypocritical. I'm not surprised at all," I said dryly.

"See? Like I said before, you understand me."

"I really wish I didn't though," I said as I followed Hiratsuka-sensei further into the booth. It was actually a pretty big one, with used books arranged by genre spread out all across the haphazardly set up tables.

"I doubt we're going to be very popular tonight." Hiratsuka-sensei said.

Yeah, she was probably right. There was food, fun, games, and rides spread out all across the fairgrounds; I highly doubted anybody came here with the express purpose of buying crummy used books that were practically falling apart by their bindings, especially when there was fun stuff right around the corner. Books weren't fun. I think my fellow highschoolers would agree.

"That's a relief." I answered.

I followed her behind the little cash register stand that was set up somewhere near the back of the booth.

"So I'm going to go out on a limb here and assume you know how to work a cash register, correct?"

I nodded.

"Good. So, I'm sure you can guess what your job is going to be. Help any customers who need it find their way around, and point them to the correct sections if they ask for help. The books are organized by genre and labeled accordingly." She pointed to some of the signs that were taped to the sides of the tables that read along the lines of: romance, action, sci-fi, thriller, etc. It all seemed pretty intuitive, so I nodded again.

"Don't be fooled though, there _will_ be people who bug you about which section is which, even when the signs are posted right in front of their eyes." She rolled her eyes in an exasperated gesture. "Check them out when they're ready to pay, and ta-da, that solves that. Any questions?"

It was my turn to roll my eyes.

"Yeah, what are you going to be doing?"

"Me? Relaxing of course." She shrugged and sent a crooked smile in my direction.

"How predictable…" I said. Saw that coming.

"I'm kidding. Just how irresponsible do you think I am?" Hiratsuka-sensei didn't look pleased after I fixed her with a half-lidded glare. "Fuh, come on. I'll be doing the same thing you're doing. Truth be told, this is a job for one, but like I said, you're mostly here to keep me company so it can't be helped."

"Uh huh…" I muttered simply in response. I looked around from where I was standing and noticed that a few more people than before were walking around now. The general crowd still hadn't shown up yet, but it was starting to get more packed—slowly but surely.

"I like your shirt by the way. I'm glad you took my advice," Hiratsuka-sensei said as she folded her arms across her chest.

I looked down at my shirt incredulously. _Are we sure we're looking at the same thing here?_

The slightly too-large shirt hung over me awkwardly and looked weird on my body. I mean, the jeans I was wearing looked fine I guess, but the shirt didn't do me any favors at all.

"Really?" I asked almost suspiciously. This very well could turn out to be her build-up to a jab at my taste in clothing or something.

"Yep. Blue looks good on you." She answered with a small smile.

She sounded honest enough, so I chose to believe her. I took the opportunity to look at what she was wearing in more detail. I wanted to say that she dressed up for the event as well, but it was hard to tell because she usually wore leather jackets outside of school anyways. Her jeans looked pretty expensive and were surprisingly tight. Skinny jeans I think? I didn't know much about women's fashion I admit, but the dark denim seemed to hug the curves of her long legs well, so the look worked. Aside from that though, she was wearing a dark red blouse underneath her stylish brown leather jacket. I wasn't going to lie; I thought she looked particularly good in what she was wearing.

"You don't look bad either," I commented.

"Damn right I don't." She puffed her chest out a bit as she spoke, before softly adding, "Thanks."

In front of us, more people were beginning to walk around. Most of them were adults, holding younger kids on their arms as they looked around. It looked like it was still a little too early for the teenagers to get here. Like pack animals, they always seemed to show up in enormous groups and at the same time—almost as if they'd all gotten together and planned to make a grand entrance or something.

But before we knew it, the sun had set, the lights were switched on, and the crowd had arrived. It was packed, and incredibly so at that.

I heard a gun shoot off in my head.

' _Open up the cages and let the games begin._ ' I thought dryly.

* * *

Once night had officially fallen, the festival sprang to life. With a flourish, the relatively subdued and sleepy atmosphere that had characterized the fairgrounds less than an hour ago had all but evaporated into the chilled air, only to be replaced by the hustle and bustle of a full-blown festival celebration.

Laughs, cheers, and screams surrounded me on every side as things came to a head. Music was playing from every direction around me; some blaring from the portable speakers that some booths had brought to help advertise their products, while the majority of the noise came from the industrial-sized amplifiers that I had seen on one of the stages from earlier.

Surprisingly, the music wasn't unbearably loud or bad at all. Most of it being played from the booths around us was barely noticeable from where we were positioned, so instead the only music that we were really forced to listen to was the smooth timbre of the saxophones and other brass instruments coming from a couple hundred yards away on the main stage. I'd even found myself tapping my foot idly to a few of the songs. I couldn't help it; it was pretty good.

"Hikigaya! Grab me change for a two-thousand note," Hiratsuka-sensei called out to me. She was looking at me expectantly from a few yards away, one hand gripping a book and the other on her hip.

I complied and shuffled over to the cash register before pulling out the appropriate bills and then making my way back over to her. With a surprisingly quick hand, she snatched the bills from me, and proceeded to divide them up expertly before handing the man his book and due change.

"Here you are. Thank you, and enjoy the festival," Hiratsuka-sensei said with a smile, in what was a surprisingly hospitable exchange. The man gave a short thanks before walking off, small plastic bag in hand.

"We're getting more customers than I expected," Hiratsuka-sensei said, turning to face me.

"Yeah, I've noticed." I answered. "Is that a good or bad thing?"

Normally I was of the opinion that the less work there was, the better, but our jobs would seem horribly pointless if only one or two people ended up stopping by. The flow of patrons that we were getting now was definitely manageable, and in truth not too much of a bother.

"Mostly good. Keeps us busy at least," She responded. "How're the profits so far? Any good?"

I took a moment to walk over to the register and check the damage so far. After taking a quick scan of the bills and coins that were in there, I answered. "Including the five hundred we just made, we're at about sixty two hundred."

"Hmm. Not bad at all." She hummed to herself. "If we keep this up, maybe we could even close up early and take a look around the festival."

I was doubtful. "Is that really a good idea? We've barely been working for half an hour and you're already thinking about shirking your responsibilities." I shook my head slightly to show her just how disappointed I was in her work ethic.

"Ah, lighten up a bit Hikigaya." She slapped me on the back, and I couldn't help but grunt a little bit at the sudden impact. "The principal said he wanted this booth to take in at least thirty thousand tonight. I'd say we're well on track to do that. Maybe even better than on track, all things considered."

"Yeah, I guess." I shrugged.

"Come on, don't tell me you're not itching to get your hands on some Ikayaki. That stuff is delicious." She almost looked lost in thought as she spoke, her face curling up into a pleasant smile and a little bit of drool dribbling out from the corner of her lips.

 _She always did have a thing for seafood…_

She blinked once to refocus herself before letting out a small chuckle. "After all, this thing only rolls around once a year. Might as well take full advantage of it while we can, right?"

I shrugged my shoulders again. I didn't feel like arguing with her, but it would just be wrong of me if I didn't tell her how I really felt. "I suppose. I'd still feel more comfortable if we finished doing our jobs before screwing around though," I said.

"Ohoh, who are you and what've you done with the real Hikigaya?" She laughed as she grabbed both of my shoulders and began shaking me (rather roughly actually) back and forth.

I had to practically peel her hands off of my body to put a stop to her antics. "Cut it out," I said as I finished swatting her hands away. "I'm just saying that I don't want you to get fired for slacking off too much or something."

' _How ridiculous'_ I thought. Of all people, _I,_ was the one telling Hiratsuka-sensei that she should be paying more attention to her work. Sometimes I legitimately wondered who the adult was in this relationship.

I expected her to laugh or something, but instead she just answered me in a neutral tone. "You worry too much, but alright. We'll stick around until every last bargain book hunter heads home," she said. I gave her a small nod in response.

"Anyways, I doubt the old geezer would fire me. I'm the best modern Japanese teacher this school's got you know." She made one of those small smiles that didn't leave much room for disagreement. But I decided to press my luck, and disagree anyways.

"The district on the other hand…" I trailed off for dramatic effect. And I got my just desserts. A light smack on my head. "Ow." I said in monotone.

"Just can't keep your mouth shut huh? I swear, your brain is like a cesspool for smartass responses," She said disapprovingly with a slight frown. It was pretty obvious that she wasn't actually upset though.

I couldn't help but smirk back at her, which earned me a laugh.

As time elapsed and we continued doing our jobs to the sound of melodic, drifting jazz in the background, we'd suddenly found that we'd been working for quite a while.

As I had expected, the work was mostly boring and pretty much consisted of doing the exact same things over and over again. The only remotely fun thing about it was getting to make fun of Hiratsuka-sensei a little bit and watching her get flustered at some of my comments, but aside from that, it wasn't anything too stimulating. I thought somewhat downtroddenly for a second that I'd much rather be enjoying the festival as a guest instead of a laborer. Though, the hypocrisy stung me a little bit because if I hadn't been forced into working in the first place by Hiratsuka-sensei, I definitely wouldn't have even come to the festival at all. So it was a double-edged sword in that sense.

I was helping an elderly man pick out a book from the romance section, when I suddenly heard my name being spoken.

"Oh, it's Hikki," the voice said.

Having tried and failed to use my limited knowledge of romance novels to persuade the man into buying something, I turned towards the source of the noise to see two girls walking towards the booth with both food and bags in their hands.

It was Yukinoshita and Yuigahama.

"Yo," I said with a slight nod. They waited for me to finish dealing with the man (who wound up buying nothing in the end annoyingly enough), before walking up to the table and greeting me.

"Yahallo Hikki! I didn't know you were working a booth!" Yuigahama said in an obnoxiously cheery tone.

"Yes Hikigaya-kun, I was initially going to say that it seemed beneath you to work such a lowly position, but then I remembered who I was talking to." Of course Yukinoshita opened up the conversation with an attack aimed directly for the throat. I wanted to roll my eyes badly, but opted not to.

"Wasn't my choice. That woman over there forced me to keep her company." I nodded my head towards Hiratsuka-sensei who looked to be talking to a middle-aged lady about something or another; probably book related I was guessing.

"So what kind of booth is this? I don't see any price signs around." Yuigahama was looking behind the cash register for a big sign or something that would spell out prices or products or whatever. But in doing so, she clearly missed the BOOKS that were laid out right in front of her eyes. Airhead.

I wordlessly lifted up one of the hardcovers from the table and held it in front of her. She looked at it, then at me, then crinkled her nose before saying, "…Books? Really?"

"That's what I said," I shrugged.

Yukinoshita seemed to be thinking about something as she hummed before saying, "Do you carry any books in English?"

One of my eyebrows rose questioningly. Leave it to Yukinoshita not only to show interest in a used bookstand while at a festival, but also to look for novels that weren't even written in her native language to read. Show off.

"Yeah, I think I saw a few over here." I flicked my head towards the back and motioned them to follow behind me.

They did, and we wound up somewhere near the back of the booth where the less popular books were kept. Yukinoshita began to grab some of them interestedly and began flipping through a few of the pages.

"Are you really planning on buying books here Yukinon?" Yuigahama asked after a few seconds had passed.

"Hmm, if they're in good condition and reasonably priced, yes." Yukinoshita answered without looking up from the book she was currently skimming. Yuigahama, seeing that her companion was absorbed in her task, turned to me instead.

"So Hikki, have you checked out the rest of the festival yet? There's soo much cool stuff this year," Yuigahama said.

"Nope. I've been stuck here the whole time," I said. "Thanks for inviting me by the way," I added sarcastically.

Yuigahama looked slightly surprised at that before she suddenly spoke up in a loud voice. "Huh?! I didn't think you wanted to go! You should've asked me if I was going or said something abou—"

I cut her off before she went into full meltdown mode. "I'm joking. I wouldn't have gone even if you asked."

She calmed down slightly a bit at that and smiled relievedly.

For the record, I hadn't _actually_ expected her to invite me or anything. I was simply poking fun at her, that was all. Maybe it did sting a little though.

"Well, you wanna go around with us? We kinda just got here and there's a ton of stuff left to see," she offered kindly.

I gave a small smile before addressing her. "Nah, I need to stick around and run the booth."

It was true; I had work left to do. Also, I didn't want to intrude on what the two of them had going on either, so I politely declined her offer. ' _Plus, leaving Hiratsuka-sensei by herself after all the trouble she went to force me here would be pretty crappy._ ' I mentally added.

Yuigahama nodded. "Oh okay. If you want to, you could text me later if you finish early or something. Yukinon and I can show you which activities are worth the money and stuff haha," she laughed.

"Yeah, maybe." I responded. I thought at that moment that I probably wouldn't end up taking her up on her offer, but I answered positively anyways. I was suddenly tapped on my shoulder by a finger. I turned around to see Yukinoshita holding four books in her hands and looking at me with an impatient glare.

"I'd like to buy these."

"Sure." I said as I took the books into my own hands and began searching their covers for price stickers. As I did, I saw that some of the books she had chosen were incredibly thick and judging by the size of some of the words alone, probably insanely difficult to read. Especially considering they were all written in English.

"What's up with buying all English books? These can't possibly be any fun to read when you're stuck translating every other line…" I said disbelievingly. Her grasp on the language was undoubtedly better than mine, but even with that in mind, the stories she picked looked ridiculously complicated, and nearly impossible to fully comprehend without a degree in foreign language studies.

She looked at me with a raised eyebrow and a frown. "Just because your abilities are sub-par, that doesn't mean that mine are. I've been frequently told that my English is almost perfect," she said haughtily. "In fact, the reason that I'm buying these books in the first place is so that I can learn new vocabulary."

The look she gave me was one of pure and unadulterated triumph. If my interpretation of her facial expression was accurate, it looked as if she'd expected me to be completely and utterly impressed with her abilities and intelligence.

"Whatever, Yukinerdshita." I shrugged.

Yuigahama laughed nervously and Yukinoshita looked like she was ready to burst into flames, if her angry, completely wide eyes were any indication. However, just as she opened her mouth to throw what would undoubtedly be a sharp retort my way, somebody else spoke up.

"Yukinoshita, Yuigahama. Fancy meeting you here."

Hiratsuka-sensei had her hands on her hips as she addressed the two girls.

"Hello sensei." Yukinoshita said.

"Yahallo Hiratsuka-sensei," Yuigahama bowed in an unnecessarily formal greeting. The contrast between her formal gesture and her incredibly informal speech prompted me to let out a dry chuckle.

"Something funny Hikigaya?" Hiratsuka-sensei looked at me with a smirk and a knowing eye.

"Nothing."

Having totaled up the amount that Yukinoshita's books cost all together in my mind, I briefly pushed past Hiratsuka-sensei and made it over to the cash register to print out a pre-emptive receipt and grab a plastic bag.

After I walked back to the crowd of two girls and a woman, I said, "It's 1750 total."

"Are you sure I can trust your mediocre math skills?" Yukinoshita asked with a sarcastic smile.

"Add it up yourself if you really want to." I replied as I placed the books into the small plastic bag.

"I already did." she said as she grabbed the books from my hand and handed me a two thousand yen bill. A quick trip back to the register, and I returned with her change.

"Yuigahama-san, shall we get going now?" Yukinoshita faced Yuigahama as she spoke. "I thought I saw an interesting booth a little further down…" she added in an oddly small voice. It was certainly a contrast between her challenging tone from earlier. She was probably talking about the plushy booth a few stalls down that sold Pan-san plushies though. Gosh, even when she was trying to be vague, she was still so obvious. I didn't choose to call her out on it, however.

"Okay, let's do it Yukinon!" Yuigahama responded energetically.

Yukinoshita turned to face us before speaking. "Goodbye Hiratsuka-sensei. Hikigaya-kun." She gave us a curt nod, which we both returned.

"Bye!" Yuigahama added with a wave. "By the way, I'm getting hungry again. Can we get some taiyaki before we go?"

"No. The booth I wanted to check out is right over here. Maybe after."

"Oh come oooon Yukinon…"

Their voices eventually melded into the other loud voices and sounds of the festival as they walked further and further away.

"1750 yen closer to our goal." I said simply.

"Not bad. I'm glad Yukinoshita could contribute to our noble cause." Hiratsuka-sensei said. She suddenly reached into her jacket pocket and pulled out a cigarette. I looked at her with a slightly curious expression and she chuckled. "Take over for a second. I'm going to take a smoke break in the back."

And by the back, she meant behind the tent most likely. "Sure." I answered.

The time after that passed by much like it had before. I did my job with as much enthusiasm as I could muster (not that much), and once again I found myself slightly itching to go check out the rest of what the festival had to offer. 'Maybe we _should_ call it an early night after all.' I thought amusedly.

The music was still going full swing and the festival was still in its prime, with loud and excited patrons wandering from booth to booth, looking for food, games, and other entertainment. Some of the booths that were located directly around us looked pretty fun. There were a couple of American games that I recognized in addition to the usual stuff that showed up at these types of things.

The atmosphere was definitely an exciting one; that much was a given. Frenzied. Frenzied was probably the word I'd use to describe the incredibly vibrant mood that this place gave off. There seemed to be so much constant movement and commotion that I wouldn't have been surprised if a fire started on the spot just from the pure energy that seemed to be exuding from the place.

Oddly enough, I found myself kind of wishing that a fire would start. Not for any malicious purpose or anything, but just so I could finally get rid of these damn chills. I shivered as I gripped slightly at my forearms. Goosebumps were trailing along most of their lengths and I had to grit my teeth to keep them from clacking together. There was simply no escaping the autumn chill that persisted during this time of the year. The autumn season was almost always cold, and even if it didn't rain or snow, the wind itself seemed like enough to give you frostbite.

It didn't help that I was wearing a short-sleeved shirt. Honestly, I blamed Hiratsuka-sensei for my misery. She'd told me to dress up nicely, so I had. Obviously wearing a jacket over a dress shirt would just serve to hide away the fact that I had dressed up, so I'd decided not to, and to just stick with wearing a simple shirt instead. What I hadn't been told however, was that the weather at night during an _Autumn_ Fair would be the absolutely, bitingly, make-you-want-to-kill-yourself variant of cold.

I was shaking and I could already feel snot dripping from my nose.

"Cold?" Hiratsuka-sensei asked after standing beside me. She smelled like an odd mix of perfume and ash.

"Nope. This is just my defensive Shikotsumyaku stance." I responded sarcastically. My arms were still wrapped around my body.

"For some reason, I highly doubt the Hikigaya clan possesses _any_ kekkei genkai, let alone one as powerful as that." She responded with an indulgent smile.

I rolled my eyes at her and decided to ignore her unsurprisingly intimate knowledge of shonen ninja abilities. "Obviously. It's freezing out here. Couldn't you have at least mentioned that the temperature was dropping so low tonight?"

"Isn't that what the weather app is for?"

I mumbled something incomprehensible in response. She got me there. It was technically my fault that I'd come unprepared tonight. I was just making excuses, even though I knew it was my fault that I was going to end up a popsicle after all was said and done.

She shook her head lightly. "Here." She slowly started to peel her brown leather jacket off of her as I stared at her dumbfoundedly.

"What are you doing?" I asked.

"What does it look like? Giving you my jacket so you don't accidentally start vibrating through the ground."

She proffered the jacket to me in one hand, and shook it lightly when I didn't take it. I felt my cheeks heat up… from the cold probably. Yeah, the cold. I could appreciate the sentiment, but not only would wearing an older woman's jacket be indescribably embarrassing, but given that she was slightly taller than me, I doubted it would even fit right, and I'd end up looking even more stupid than I did now—chattering teeth and all.

"Nah, I'll be okay." I said and pushed her arm slightly away. "Besides, you'll just end up getting cold if you take off your jacket. One of us is going to suffer either way, so it might as well be me." I shrugged through my stiff shoulders.

She huffed lightly. "Oh wow, aren't you chivalrous?" she asked sarcastically. I raised an eyebrow at her tone. "Come on, don't be so stubborn. Just take it." She shook the jacket slightly harder this time. "There's no need to worry about me. I've already got a little special-something to fight off the cold." She said with a sly smile.

I couldn't help but furrow my brow at that. "Like what?" I questioned her.

She suddenly reached into the pocket of her jeans and produced a small, shiny metallic object. It looked to be about six inches long and had a little cap on it. I looked at it questioningly as it was presented to me. By the way she was looking at me, I was guessing that she'd been expecting me to know what it was, but I didn't.

"Am I supposed to know what that is?"

She looked slightly taken aback. "You've never seen one of these before?" She asked, a hint of surprise on her face.

"Nope. Is there an electric blanket in there or something?" I asked out of genuine curiosity. If she'd somehow managed to fit an entire blanket into that tiny, compact container, I definitely would have been impressed.

She scoffed loudly. "You're too innocent for your own good Hikigaya." She shook her head, still smiling. "It's a flask. Let's just say this stuff'll keep you twice as warm as any old jacket."

As she spoke, understanding dawned on my face. Ah, it was alcohol. Again, unsurprising. What _was_ a little bit surprising though was that Hiratsuka-sensei would be willing to drink on the job, especially when her boss might be around to catch her in the act. But what she was saying did make sense. I'd heard before that alcohol heated up your body quickly and could help you fight off the cold when there was nothing else. It was like using your body against itself to warm yourself up.

"Oh. I thought you were acting a little bit cheekier than normal tonight. That explains a lot," I said. I earned a smack on the head for my troubles. The jacket that she had offered out before had been slung over her shoulder, and she looked around quickly before stuffing the flask back into her pocket.

"I haven't had any yet idiot. I was only planning on drinking some if you didn't show up tonight."

I looked up at her when she said that. That caught my attention slightly and I stopped my shivering for a second. What, had she expected me to just break my word and outright ditch her or something? Even she must've known that I wouldn't just leave her here alone when I'd already said I'd help her. The fact that she had even thought far enough ahead to prepare a contingency plan to compensate for my absence was a little bit insulting to me.

"Why wouldn't I show up? I wouldn't leave you here alone after I already said yes." I said, looking at her.

She shrugged. "It doesn't hurt to be prepared." She gave me a small smile, but it wasn't hard to see that it wasn't one of her usual ones. It held a sad edge to it, one that stretched all the way to her eyes. It was weird how sad one simple, yet otherwise meaningless sentence could sound to me. I wasn't an idiot. I could tell just by what she said that something like that had happened once. A completely different scenario and context maybe, but nonetheless I'm sure something like that had happened once.

"Maybe, but it was a waste of your time because I would never do that." I turned my gaze directly to her face so that I could get what I wanted to say across fully and effectively. "Seriously. I wouldn't leave you."

I could hear her barely noticeable gasp even over the loud sounds of the festival around me. Her face looked surprised and her features were drawn wide for a second. She stared at me for I'm not completely sure how long and I matched her gaze. However, after a few moments, she coughed lightly before turning away to face the crowd that was passing by.

"Oh. Thank you." She said quietly.

We both sat in silence for a bit, our eyes staring out at the passerby's that seemed to breeze past our booth on their ways to undoubtedly more interesting activities.

My trance was broken when a hand suddenly drew near to my face. _Not this again…_ "I still don't want your jacket," I said exasperatedly.

"Your parents would kill me if I let you die while in my care, and there are still a few things left in this world that I want to try," she said with a smile. A much prettier one this time.

"I'll seriously be okay. I've dealt with worse."

She rolled her eyes and sighed out a little bit, her breath visible in the chilly night air. Maybe I _was_ being a little bit stubborn, but I really didn't want to wear her jacket. I wasn't going to go out and claim that I was the manliest guy in the world, but even I had enough pride not to wear women's clothing in public. Plus, it'd look especially awkward on my skinny frame.

"Fine. At least drink some of this then." The metallic object from earlier was once again taken out of her pocket. Instead of the jacket, this time Hiratsuka-sensei's hands were offering me the small flask filled with god knew what.

I felt my eyes grow a little bit wide before I spoke. "You know you're offering alcohol to a minor right? You could get in big trouble for this."

"Hey, spoilsport. I didn't ask you to go and report me, now did I?" She said with a click of her tongue. I just stared at the metal container that was resting in her palm.

Alcohol… It went without saying that I wasn't a big drinker. Though, I'd be lying if I said I'd never tasted some before. Every kid's tried a sip now and again when his dad's drunk at a party and insists he man up and at least _try_ a little bit. Though, as it were, there never really was a reason for me to drink alcohol. I wasn't exactly big in the party scene, so I never got 'wasted' like other drunk highschoolers did at those big kegger parties. As far as taste went… alcohol was bitter as all hell. If I was looking for something to quench my thirst, I'd be better off drinking black GEORGIA coffee. At least I could get that down without wanting to spit it back up first. But, as it went, I wasn't a big alcohol guy which is why I was sort of surprised I'd been offered some at all.

"I normally wouldn't do something like this, but you look like you're about to pass out. Even a sip will make you feel ten times better." Hiratsuka-sensei shook the flask a bit and I could hear some liquid splash around in the metal casing. My eyes met with hers for a second and she gave me an encouraging smile.

She was right. I was cold. Really, really _freezing_ cold. And I'd already made up my mind that I wasn't going to wear her darn jacket. I supposed that one sip couldn't really do all that much damage or anything.

I finally grabbed the container out of Hiratsuka-sensei's hands and ducked slightly behind one of the support beams to hide from the view of passerby's. I looked at Hiratsuka-sensei one more time and she was still smiling, her jacket hanging across her shoulder and her arms folded across her chest. I turned to the flask and unscrewed the top off slowly. Peeking one eye into its opening, I could see there was some type of brownish liquid contained inside. I put it under my nose for a second and inhaled, and yep. It smelled like booze, just as I'd thought. Mystery solved detective.

I shrugged my shoulders and decided to just get it over with. I put the flask to my lips and swallowed as much as one gulp would allow. And suddenly, the back of my throat felt like it was on fire. My eyes shot wide as I struggled to contain a loud cough.

"Wow, you're a regular booze-hound Hikigaya. You aren't supposed to drink that much in one sip."

"Could've…warned me," I choked out through my burning throat. She laughed and then put the flask to her mouth before taking a sip herself. She tilted her head back and swallowed loudly before peeling it away from her lips and wiping the remaining liquid off with her bare arm.

"Ah. It doesn't get much better than Barbancourt," She breathed out in satisfaction. "This is strong stuff so I'm going to limit how much you drink. I don't want you passing out on the job after all."

I grimaced. "That's fine. I think I've had enough for a lifetime anyways."

"Lightweight." She laughed.

We continued working after that, our job requiring our attentions every so often as the occasional customer would stop by to ask about this or that every once in a while.

The alcohol definitely did its job. Merely a few minutes after I had ingested it, I was already feeling significantly warmer. It felt like my whole body was blushing; I could feel my blood flowing through every appendage. The part of my body that probably felt the alcohol's effects the most however, was my face. Even without touching them, I could tell that my cheeks were flushed completely red and were practically radiating heat off their surfaces. Even my ears felt abnormally warm.

Keeping me warm wasn't all that the drink did though. I felt a pleasant buzzing sensation as I leaned against a support beam. I felt sort of… weightless, and it was hard to describe, but it felt pretty good. Even though the taste had made me want to throw up, the effects that it produced might've made it worth it. Maybe.

Hiratsuka-sensei and I kept it up after that, chatting about random things when there were no customers present. When there were, we would sell them books and answer their questions. And before we knew it, we had reached our goal.

* * *

 **AN:** So I originally wanted all of the events of the festival to be one single chapter for flow's sake, but given how long it ended up being, I just had to split it up. Therefore, the next chapter is _technically_ going to be the same chapter as this one even though it's going to be posted separately. Hope that's not too confusing. That being said though, I'm very nearly done with the rest, so it'll be an incredibly short wait time for the next update. Yay! Also, some people have expressed concern that they think this story should be rated M, but I disagree. It's not going to be too explicit, so don't worry about that. I'm treating it as high T, so be warned if you're a younger reader I guess. Thanks for reading, and leave a review!


	3. The Autumn Festival Pt 2

**Chapter 3: The Autumn Festival pt. 2**

"30150, 30650, and… 31150." Hiratsuka-sensei said as she finished flicking through the stack of bills in her hand. "Not too shabby. Not too shabby at all."

Hiratsuka-sensei looked at the money with satisfaction clearly etched across her features. Having reached the rough goal that had been set for us was sort of a relief; at least now we could say that we hadn't been completely wasting our times and that we'd actually done our jobs satisfactorily. We didn't wildly surpass our goal or anything, but we also didn't horribly undershoot it either. And that was all they could really ask for: an averagely decent success for an averagely decent booth.

"So does this mean we're finally done?" I asked, turning to look in her direction.

"Hmm, I think so. Give me a second." Hiratsuka-sensei suddenly walked behind the register and grabbed a long, white envelope before stuffing the money inside. She then grabbed the walkie-talkie that was lying on the counter's surface before speaking into it. "Can I get a volunteer over here? We reached our goal and we're going to need some help with the cleanup."

After receiving a staticky answer, she nodded and then set the walkie-talkie down before walking back over to me. I looked at her expectantly.

"They said they'd send someone over, so it looks like that's that. We can officially wash our hands of this business once and for all." She said as she clasped me on the back lightly. I tried not to let my face show it, but I suddenly felt very relieved. Work had gotten to be pretty boring for the last hour, if not before that. Fewer and fewer people had been coming as time passed, and not only that, but our book supplies had diminished significantly as well. Given that fact and also the fact that I was freezing (alcohol and all), I was more than ready to call it a night.

"About time," I mumbled, rubbing my hands together to try to generate some body heat. "The sooner I can get into warm clothing and my sheets, the better," I said.

"Come again?" She asked in an amused tone.

I rephrased and repeated myself as per her request. "I'm just looking forward to passing out on my bed as soon as possible." I mumbled over the sounds of my clattering teeth. I felt somewhat lightheaded.

"See, that's what I thought I heard, but I figured my ears were tricking me," She responded, her voice once again brandishing an odd tone of amusement. I looked up at her eyes questioningly and she laughed. "You're not going anywhere. Not until we check out what this place has to offer first."

"What, you were serious about that?" I asked with slight surprise. Was this woman a superhuman or something? After working for hours on end, I was starting to feel pretty drained. I was a little bit shocked that a woman of Hiratsuka-sensei's age could still manage to be so energetic after doing the same.

"Psh, of course I was. You really think I'd slave away all night and not at least use my time off to live it up some?" She asked rhetorically.

" _All work and no play makes Shizuka a dull girl_. _All work and no play makes Shizuka a dull girl._ " She suddenly began speaking in a creepy, scratchy voice and began trying to imitate what I think was a zombie staggering around.

"Are you drunk?" I asked seriously.

She slapped me over the head. "You wish." She looked at me then, and slightly raised an eyebrow before adding, "But it looks like you could use a little more to drink. You're shivering and your cheeks don't look flushed anymore."

I suddenly lifted my fingers to my face to feel if some of the scalding heat from earlier had persisted, but Hiratsuka-sensei was right. My cheeks felt completely normal, and the fact that I was shivering again was proof enough that the effects of the alcohol had mostly subsided at that point.

"Maybe you're less of a lightweight than you look." She reached into her pocket to once again pull out her flask. "Here. Drink up."

I was kind of tempted to argue just for propriety's sake, but I decided to drink first and ask questions later. I grabbed the flask from her hand and took two sips that were slightly smaller than the one I had downed earlier, before removing the flask from my mouth and blinking my eyes shut. Once again the taste was overwhelming, but it was a little bit more manageable this time. "This still seems like a bad idea," I said after the liquid had completely slid down my throat.

"Usually when someone complains about drinking, they do it before they down the shot." She said wryly before taking the flask to her own lips and taking a sip herself.

I shrugged. A few minutes after that, a couple of festival volunteers made it over to our booth like had been arranged, and began to pack up what remaining books there were into cardboard boxes, and began to generally arrange and clean up what was left of the stall. Hiratsuka-sensei handed over the booth earnings to one of the volunteers and laughed a little bit when he asked if it was rum that he smelled on her breath. He didn't seem to mind though, and with the help of his coworker, had everything finished and ready-to-go in a little over fifteen minutes.

"Alright Hikigaya! You ready to paint the town red?" Hiratsuka-sensei suddenly exclaimed loudly, one of her arms shooting up into the air like a missile.

I rolled my eyes. "Yeah, yeah. Et's just try not… to stick around _too_ long." I responded. With a slight stutter. Suddenly, I noticed that my cheeks were once again scalding hot and my vision was precariously unfocused.

I wasn't going to deny that I wasn't feeling slightly off-kilter, and the reason for why was pretty obvious. I'd never been drunk before or anything, so I couldn't completely and accurately deny if I actually was, but I didn't think I was that bad off. Aside from the occasional stutter and an overall feeling of weightlessness, I felt more or less like my normal self. I was probably just enjoying a pleasant buzz, nothing too serious.

"We'll see about that. We can call it a night once we get through all the fun stuff; not a second before." Hiratsuka-sensei didn't mumble or stutter over any of her words, but just from her slightly loose tone and the pleasant smile that was stretched out across her face, I could tell that she was buzzed too. Probably only very slightly, but she wasn't completely sober either. I didn't doubt that she had a much higher alcohol tolerance than I did, but to be fair, she'd been drinking a lot more than I had too, so I suppose it balanced out in the end.

"Let's go!" She grabbed my arm and dragged me off into the depths of the festival, leaving our booth, and the two volunteers assigned to packing up that booth, behind in the dust. The only thing I could do was mumble a half-hearted complaint to myself as I was pulled along.

* * *

The festival at night actually looked really really cool. Having been trapped inside our own booth for the majority of the night, we hadn't gotten a good chance to take a look around at all, discounting the occasional glimpses we could see of the other stalls around us from where we were stationed.

So when we finally did, we were pretty impressed, and a little bit amazed even. The lights were brilliant, the food smelled delicious, and the rides looked incredibly fun, if not a little nauseating to my alcohol-addled brain.

The first thing we stopped by of course was a food stand. Hiratsuka-sensei had said earlier that she'd wanted to get some Ikayaki-on-a-stick, and I wasn't in any mood to complain about _what_ in particular we ate. Fried squid sounded about as good as anything else to my empty stomach.

"My god. I don't think I've ever had Ikayaki that was this crispy." Hiratsuka-sensei said happily as she took gratuitous bites from her portion. I was currently enjoying my own portion and as a result, didn't answer her until I had sated my hunger to an acceptable degree.

"Yeah, seriously. This is probably the best I've had." I responded quickly and continued to scarf down my food, not paying attention to much other than the squid chunks in front of me and Hiratsuka-sensei who was sitting to my left on the bench. We quickly devoured our sriracha-dipped skewers and finally both sighed out in satisfaction when we finished.

"Where to next?" I asked, being in a considerably better mood now that I had satisfied my hunger.

We headed to some other drink and food booths after that, both gorging on whatever food smelled, and or looked good to our weary eyes. Which, given that it was Hiratsuka-sensei who was deciding, was most of them. Obviously yakisoba was one of the first things we grabbed after that, and we also ended up trying Kaarage, the festival staple that was taiyaki, and finished off our eating spree with dango and karumeyaki. Needless to say, it was all very, very delicious and surprisingly good quality for it being a school festival.

After that, we decided to try our hands at some drinks, and ended up buying some fruit slushies with jello chunks at the bottom, and then purchasing two orders of some type of thick creamy dessert drink that I had no idea what was called. The slushies hit the spot, but the dessert honestly tasted pretty lousy. The consistency was awkward and it was overall just a little bit too sweet for my tastes.

I tossed my portion away into one of the trash bins before turning to face Hiratsuka-sensei who was polishing off her dessert with a plastic spoon.

After finally finishing, Hiratsuka-sensei threw the container in the trash as well and sighed out in satisfaction. "Ahh, there really is nothing quite like Matsuri specialties," She said. She turned to look at me before asking, "Want to get something else or are you full?"

"I don't think I could eat another bite if somebody paid me," I answered. That was a half-truth. I really _was_ full, but if somebody really was offering, I probably would have agreed to scarf down another ten balls of dango on the spot.

"Thought so. Me too," She agreed, wiping her hands together to get whatever residual food crumbs remained there to fall to the floor. "So, shall we hit some of the game booths next? Or are you feeling tired already?" She asked with a smirk. She still seemed to be completely filled with energy; the absurd amounts of food we just consumed seemed to do little to slow her down. I was the same way.

"Not at all. Let's do it." I said as I stood. That earned me a smirk and a slight tug on my arm.

The first thing we saw that caught our interest was the batting cages. Two metal cages with chain-linked fences were set up somewhere near the far end of the field, complete with automated machines and all. After looking at each other for a second, and Hiratsuka-sensei all but calling me out, we decided to try our lucks after purchasing a ticket from a booth employee. Hiratsuka-sensei went first and for what it was worth, I thought she was pretty damn good. Helmet on her head and bat in her hands, she actually had pretty impressive form, and it showed when she hit nearly every ball that came her way.

I went after and didn't do so badly if I did say so myself, though the alcohol did little to help my hand-eye coordination or my concentration. I ended up batting just a few points below her, but she didn't pass up the opportunity to declare her superiority over me and call me out for losing to a woman afterwards. For my part, I obviously argued back, but after a while I shrugged it off. _She did beat me fair and square after all._ 'No need to be sexist about it.' I added, to which she scoffed.

The time after that passed by in what was kind of a pleasant blur. We played a bunch of the usual carnival games; games that were very obviously rigged to the dealer's favor and would only net a player a win after nine or so "random" tries. Hiratsuka-sensei became increasingly frustrated at her losses, lamenting that she just wanted to win _one_ prize, and that that would be enough to satisfy her. But alas, her dreams never came to fruition and we were left empty handed after all was said and done.

"I'll show you 'better luck next time' pal. Your damn machine is rigged!" She yelled out at the booth operator as I all but dragged her away from the stall. I could see him roll his eyes, and I chuckled.

The rest of the night passed by something like that, and on more than one occasion, I thought to myself that I was glad I had agreed to tag along with Hiratsuka-sensei to the Autumn Festival in the first place. The night had been filled with pretty good food, entertaining games, and an intense and energetic atmosphere. I was genuinely enjoying myself; not in little part due to Hiratsuka-sensei's antics and just overall company in general. I looked at Hiratsuka-sensei's content looking and slightly flushed face, and I couldn't help but smile a little bit myself.

We ended up playing a few more games, and grabbing some more Ikayaki after getting hungry yet again. We were enjoying ourselves and laughing at something when I suddenly noticed that the crowds that had been practically swarming the festival's booths before, seemed to have thinned out greatly.

I turned my watch to check the time. My eyes widened ever so slightly at what I saw. It was 11:15.

The festival officially ended at midnight, so some of the patrons had seen it fit to head home while the traffic hadn't yet hit its worst point. Considering that, and the fact that most of them had probably been out and about far longer than we had given our obligations to our own booth, it made sense that the crowds would start to disappear around this time.

"It's 11:15. The booths and everything are probably going to wrap up soon," I said. I turned to face Hiratsuka-sensei, who was downing the very last of the liquor in her flask. I eyed her with an amused smile and she laughed.

"That late already huh?" She asked more to herself than anything. She put the now-empty flask back into her coat pocket before addressing me. "Well, how do you want to spend the last chunk of our time here?"

I initially wanted to shrug, but then I remembered that we hadn't even wandered towards the eastern quadrant yet, oddly enough. There were still plenty of things to check out there—the least not being the bigger rides I had seen when first walking in.

"The rides, obviously." I said. I tried keeping my tone even, but I was excited and I'm sure it showed.

"Of course! How could I forget about the rides?" She said in a sudden, loud voice. "Lead the way."

It wasn't long before we'd threaded through the ever-diminishing crowds and made it over to where the big rides were kept. Overall, the east side of the field wasn't all that big of an area, but nevertheless all of the larger and more fun rides seemed to be set up somewhere in the general vicinity.

"So this is where everyone went…" Hiratsuka-sensei muttered as our legs finally came to a stop.

Where the crowds before had seemed to be waning, the one we saw now was anything but.

If anything, it seemed to be multiplying by the second; doubling in mass every time we blinked in surprise at just how many people were still left at the event. Teenagers and adults alike were swarming around the rides' entrances and lines, while those that sauntered off those rides looking sickly and nauseated simply ran right back to line up again after they'd regained their bearings. The whole thing looked like something straight out of one of my nightmares. Just looking at the crowd made me sick; the only thing that I could think of that would make this worse would be if we were to _voluntarily_ enter that pit of hopelessness and despair. I motioned to say as much before I was interrupted by a feminine voice.

"Well, we'd better get lined up if we want to ride even one of these before the fair's over." Hiratsuka-sensei said with a slight frown on her face.

I looked at her with surprise. "Are you serious? I figure we might as well cut our losses while we can and get out of here before traffic gets bad."

She scoffed at me. "That would be the coward's way out. With the amount of time we have left, we should be able to get on at least one before final call." She said with a sense of calculation that didn't seem to befit her previously over-the-top and inebriated behavior. "That being said, since we only get one shot, we should pick which ride we want to line up for wisely."

Seeing no point in arguing, I decided to take a closer look at the rides that were available to us. I had taken a haphazard glance at them when I'd first entered the fair, so I had a general idea of which ones seemed fun, but nonetheless I used the moment to more closely inspect and analyze our options.

Slightly far off in the distance, I could see the line for the Ferris wheel. Being one of the major attractions, there was quite a considerable amount of people lined up for it, but in reality, it wasn't all that much more crowded than any of the other packed lines even with its celebrity status. Still, I decided that the Ferris wheel probably wouldn't have been a good option for our final activity of the night. I had nothing against slower attractions, but given that we would only be able to try one ride (if any at all), I felt that wasting it on what was basically an observation tower with a slight incline would be sort of an anticlimactic end to our festival experience.

From what I saw, the other rides sort of fell into the same pitfalls that the Ferris wheel did. They seemed well and good enough, but they were undeniably slower rides. Because the festival was also meant to accommodate both younger children and older guests in addition to the Sobu High students, it wasn't surprising that the rides that had been approved by the committee were more or less family-friendly. But I wasn't in the mood for that. For reasons I didn't care to dwell on, I was in the mood for something fast and thrilling, something that would act as an appropriate send-off for a surprisingly fun night.

And then I saw it. Its lights and metal body were spinning so fast, I probably wouldn't even be able to count the revolutions if I were living in slow motion. It was the ride I'd seen earlier; the one that I'd mused would 'make me puke my dinner out' if I dared to step foot anywhere near it. But in that moment, all I could think about was stepping my foot near it, around it, on top of it, and then feeling the adrenaline pump through my veins as I rode it.

"How about that one?" I asked as I pointed a finger towards the metal attraction. According to the sign that hung above the entrance to the line, it was called the 'Hurricane Hydra'.

Hiratsuka-sensei looked at me with a slight air of disbelief and laughed. "After all that talk about wanting to head home, _that's_ the one you're picking? It hardly looks safe, let alone a good choice after eating so much food tonight," She said with a slight shake of her head. Despite that, her voice was airy and light. She eyed the distant ride with a smirk. "Let's go."

I smiled dumbly, and we began to walk towards our destination, the only things on our buzzed minds the anticipation of the oncoming adrenaline rush. After finding our place behind a group of rowdy teenagers, we situated ourselves between the crude metal dividers that formed the waiting area, and well… waited.

After a few minutes of standing in line, Hiratsuka-sensei was the one to break the silence and the first to say something. "The nerve of some people, I swear." She said quietly to herself with her arms crossed.

Not quite knowing what she was talking about, I first looked at Hiratsuka-sensei's annoyed face before turning my head to try and see what she was looking at. I couldn't see her eyes' line of sight perfectly given that she was slightly turned away from me, but out of all the objects that were in front of us, it wasn't hard to guess which had caused her petulance.

Standing a few paces in front of us was a pair of teenagers with their arms wrapped around one another, practically slobbering over each other as they sloppily locked lips and grabbed messily at each others' bodies. If I were alone, I probably would've just ignored it and chalked it up to the old 'stupid teens doing stupid things, yep' excuse, but with Hiratsuka-sensei very clearly fuming at their flamboyant display of affection, it was impossible to avoid the subject entirely.

"Just ignore them. I'll sure they'll eventually stop once they realize nobody's paying attention to them." I said.

She rolled her eyes at that. "They shouldn't be doing it in the first place. Damn kids, this is a festival, not a stripclub." She said irately. I lifted an eyebrow at her oddly impassioned tone, but she ignored it and continued. "Stupid couples strutting around like they've got everything figured out. As if all it takes to be happy is to have someone dangling off your arm." She stuck her tongue out in what was an incredibly immature gesture for a woman her age. "Could be all the squid I had, but I feel nauseous."

I shook my head. So that's where this conversation was heading. Hiratsuka-sensei sometimes got into these moods; these moments where she'd get irrationally upset at some small thing and vent about it for hours at a time. They could be about anything really, but more often than not, these tirades usually had to do with how stupid she thought couples were, and about her relationship problems in general. I'm sure I would have been annoyed at her attitude if I hadn't gotten used to it over the time I'd known her and moreover, if I didn't find it so amusing in the first place.

I forced a shrug. "They're not wrong to do it or anything. I mean, if you've got it, why not show it off you know?" I smiled wryly and turned my eyes away from her in a playful gesture. "If for no other reason, you get to see the reactions of lonely bachelorettes around you, and that's always fun."

She frowned at me, her eyes narrowing and her teeth grinding against one other. "What was that about a lonely bachelorette?" I could feel the mix of rum and her own smooth breath on my face as she moved her head closer to mine and glared daggers at me.

I smiled innocently. "Oh you know, just those women who start passing their prime-dating age and end up blaming the world for their troubles. Those kinds of women are the worst."

"Hikigaya…" She addressed me with a look and a growl that just reeked of sheer and unbridled animosity, but hidden somewhere in there was also the barest sliver of pain.

I'd been completely joking, but teasing or not, it was still a sensitive issue for her so I decided not to push her too far. "Yeah, don't you just hate them? I mean, as a beautiful woman who's still in her prime, what do you think of women like that?" I asked.

She opened her mouth to probably say something biting and sarcastic, but after a sudden look of realization dawned on her face, she just blinked once, and then closed her mouth. Then, seemingly out of nowhere, she smiled and shook her head before letting out a bright laugh.

"Wow, you're a regular Casanova aren't you?" She said amusedly. "I'm surprised you have trouble getting girls with a tongue like that." She laughed. Whether she meant it sincerely or if she was calling me out for my volatile methods, I couldn't say I knew for sure.

"There just aren't any girls worth getting really," I offered half-sarcastically. It was true that I thought that most of the girls at Sobu were immature and at their worst, just plain uninteresting, but that definitely wasn't the reason I didn't have a girlfriend. That had much more to do with them rejecting me than it did with me rejecting them.

"If you know where to look, sure there are," she said simply. I looked at her but she was already slightly moving away when I did. "Come on, line's moving."

I blinked as I noticed that the line, and the people ahead of us in that line, had already moved on pretty far ahead without us even being aware. I nodded once before trailing behind Hiratsuka-sensei.

It took a while after that, but eventually, we'd made our ways up to the very front of the line, only to be stopped by the attendant who closed the small gate in front of us. "You've got to be kidding me…" Hiratsuka-sensei whispered under her breath.

"You guys'll be up next. Relax," The attendant responded before walking over to the ride's control panel and speaking into the little bent microphone. "Alright everybody, welcome to the Hurricane Hydra. Remember, if you're pregnant, have a heart condition, or are otherwise generally a big chicken, it goes without saying that you've come to the wrong place." The doors to the ride suddenly closed with a hiss. "That being said, it's too late to turn back now. Enjoy the ride."

The machine suddenly whirred to life and started to spin at mind-numbingly fast speeds. The only sounds that could be heard over the whirring noises of the machine's motor were the screams that came from the patrons currently positioned in the eye of the storm, at the center of the 'hurricane'. It looked a lot more intense up close than it had from afar, and I couldn't help but feel a little bit nervous as I looked at it. Hiratsuka-sensei who was standing next to me, however, wore a completely different expression. Her wide eyes looked positively entranced by what she was seeing and her open mouth made her excitement plenty obvious. She was like a big, dumb kid _._ My mind couldn't help but flit to an earlier event in the week for whatever reason. _'Yeah, a big, dumb kid with an amazing ass.'_ I thought idly.

Before we knew it, the ride stopped, and it was finally our turn to board. We were the first to get on given our positions in the line, so naturally we had first pick of seats. I was more than a little bit surprised when we made our way into the ride's interior to find that in fact, there _were_ no seats.

Instead of the arrangement I had envisioned in my head that had consisted of properly reinforced bucket seats, complete with belt straps and all, the inside of the ride looked more like something out of a bounce-house. The walls were lined with thick, cushiony pads, there were no seatbelts, and the only barriers that really prevented you from flying all over the place were some padded metal railings to your front and centrifugal force itself.

"Is this really safe?" I asked nervously as I looked at my soon-to-be resting place.

"Come on, don't be a baby. Nobody's died yet." She said with no hesitation. She continued further into the ride and chose a spot quickly, leaning her back against the padding in a casual manner. I followed and rested my own back against the padding in the spot directly to her right.

"Stars are pretty tonight aren't they?" She asked as she looked up at the sky with her arms dangling loosely to her side. For my part, I was feeling slightly nervous in anticipation of the start-up of the metal death trap, so I could only offer a short response.

"Yeah. They're nice."

We were interrupted by a loud voice that blared over the speakers directly above our heads. "Welcome to the Hurricane Hydra, riders. If you're pregnant, have heart problems, or are just otherwise wimpy…"

Hiratsuka-sensei suddenly nudged my rib with her elbow. "They're onto you Hikigaya." She laughed. All I could do was glare at her and scowl as I gripped the pad behind me even tighter with my fingers.

"—to the wrong place. That being said, you're in it for the long haul. Enjoy the ride," the voice through the speaker overhead finished. The door a few seats to my right came to a sudden hiss and with it, any fleeting chance I'd had for self-preservation. I could vaguely hear the noise of the motors churning as we were lifted slightly into the air.

"If it gets too rough, you can always hold me for comfort," Hiratsuka-sensei said snidely.

I scoffed. "Yeah, that's if I don't end up fl—" I started to speak, but was suddenly stopped with what felt like a punch to my gut. Suddenly, my head was spinning and my vision became a blur, and I all but held back a gasp as suddenly, we were propelled circularly at an insane speed.

My back slammed against the wall, hard, and I could feel the very force that was holding me so tight against the pad pushing into my body with immense power. As we were revolved around and around again, I could feel my eyes water and the flaps of my cheeks wiggle back and forth slightly as they were jostled by the centrifugal force and the wind that that force generated.

It was a struggle for me to even keep my eyes open with how intense and just outright crazy the ride was, but Hiratsuka-sensei who was pressed up against the wall to my left was laughing and screaming wildly, a pure look of unbidden joy on her face. I thought for a fleeting second that the youthful enthusiasm that she still held was something entirely welcome, especially in contrast to the dead-eyed looks and the battered mentalities of other adults I'd come into contact with. Heck, the childlike ecstasy that was clearly displayed across her features even made me look like a grumpy old stooge in comparison. Which, all things considered, wasn't that much of a stretch to begin with.

The machine continued to whirl around at breakneck speeds, earning screams of terror from the other guests to my right and screams of excitement from the woman to my left. However, as quickly as it had begun, the ride seemed to stop, doing little to slow down in a gradual manner, and instead jolting to a rather abrupt and unceremonious halt.

I felt my neck jerk a little bit as it did, and I let out a surprised gasp, but what caught me by greater surprise was the body that suddenly slammed into me with a startling amount of force. I was winded for a second, and had to take a moment to regain even a basic awareness for my surroundings, but when I did, I noticed that my arms were wrapped around something. No, someone. Hiratsuka-sensei to be specific.

Her arms were grabbing my shoulders, and I noticed then that my hands were holding her waist firmly. It must've been the slight height difference between us that forced my hands into such an uncomfortably intimate position, because grabbing her midsection instead would've definitely been the most efficient place for my hands to be. It was definitely the height difference.

It was only when I shifted my gaze upwards from my hands that I noticed Hiratsuka-sensei's strange expression. Her mouth was open, her cheeks slightly pink, and she was staring directly at me. I could feel my own cheeks color as I stared back at her, my own mouth opening, yet still not managing to eek out even a word. As we stared at each other for a few moments, the ride then finally came to a full and complete stop and began to lower on its mechanism.

"Alright folks, I hope you enjoyed your time on the Hydraaa." The speaker above us sounded out. "Come back again if one day you feel the sudden urge to tame the beast! After all, this particular monster has more than one head if you know what I mean."

I blinked. "Um, sensei? You're kind of crushing me." She wasn't really.

"Oh, I'm sorry Hikigaya," she said quietly. She lifted her body from my own before slightly lurching to the side, her sense of balance seemingly having been affected by the ride. I stood up myself and almost immediately fell over onto the floor. My head was spinning and just keeping my eyes open made me dizzy.

I suddenly felt an arm on my own, and looked up to see Hiratsuka-sensei(s) looking at me with a faint smile and pulling me to my feet. "Here, I'll help. Let's get out of here."

I nodded and stumbled to the entrance with her guidance, and eventually off the ride. I was dizzy for a little bit, but to my credit, I didn't vomit, or even feel any express desire to vomit. After I had finally regained my bearings, Hiratsuka-sensei let out a pleased laugh.

"That was pretty crazy huh? I wasn't expecting it to go so fast." She said with a smile as we began to thread through the crowd.

"Yeah… Neither was I. That was definitely one of the more nauseating things I've done in my life." I responded as my vision gradually began to become singular again.

"You'll be okay." She chuckled lightly. "What time is it now?"

Her words prompted me to take a quick look around, and while there were still people lined up for the attractions behind us, those lines had gotten significantly shorter in comparison to earlier. I took a quick look at my watch before answering her. "11:55. I guess that means the festival's over."

She hummed. "Hmm, not yet. We still have five minutes."

I gave her as funny a look as I could muster without falling over. "What can we do in five minutes?" I asked.

"Plenty. Let's head back to the main area and see what's left."

We continued to walk for a little while until we finally made it back to the main area where the majority of the good stalls were located. But unlike before, there weren't many stalls there at all. In fact, the place was hardly recognizable with so many of the lively booths from earlier either gone, or deserted. Only a few remained; one or two food stalls, and what I think was a game booth. It was hard to make out from the distance we were standing away. As we walked closer, however, I noted with a sense of familiarity that it was the booth I had seen much, much earlier. The one with the baseballs and the milk bottles.

"Just what the doctor ordered!" Hiratsuka-sensei suddenly tugged on my arm and started walking at a faster pace as she dragged me towards the game booth.

She suddenly slammed down a 500 yen note on the wooden surface. "3 balls if you'd be so kind." She looked at the booth attendant with a large grin, her slight dizziness from earlier clearly having faded completely and having been replaced with her usual energy instead.

"Sorry, I'm just about to close up." The attendant responded as he began to pack away some of the empty glass bottles into a cardboard box.

Hiratsuka-sensei's brow suddenly creased and she looked slightly angry. "Huh? The festival's not over yet, bub. Look!" She grabbed my wrist roughly and turned it towards the attendant with a flourish. "See? 2 minutes to go before midnight." She said as she presented my watch-equipped wrist like it were her own.

He eyed it for a second before shrugging. "I gotta pack up some time. I'm beat."

She glared at him, fuming. "Yeah, that _some time_ can be when your job's done. Don't you know the value of hard work? That means doing your duty even when your lazy ass is calling for you to take it easy." She said with some interesting hand-gestures. "You can _pack up_ when the very last _minute's up_. Now bring out those baseballs!" She stared at him through narrowed eyes.

I smirked at the irony that had presented itself in Hiratsuka-sensei's speech. Wasn't she the one who closed down her own booth earlier because she wanted to "take it easy?" What a character…

The attendant, to his credit, looked more exasperated than he did intimidated. He sighed once before speaking. "Fine. Whatever. Just don't take your sweet time." He grabbed the note from the counter and then walked slightly further back into the booth to grab three baseballs. After presenting them to her, he continued. "The objective of the game is to knock over those three stacked bottles with the balls." He said, pointing a few yards behind him. "You get three tries, but you have to knock them all over to get the prize. Anything less gets you nothing."

"Yeah, yeah. I got it." Hiratsuka-sensei waved a hand in front of her face, and grabbed one of the balls. The attendant rolled his eyes and crossed his arms as he watched her.

Her first attempt missed. Terribly. This was one of the bigger booths as far as I could tell, and the milk bottles that served as the targets were placed significantly far back; a few yards away at the very least. She ended up throwing a little bit too low and fast, and as a result, didn't manage to hit her mark. "Of all the…" she muttered under her breath.

Her second try was slightly better, almost managing to _touch_ the bottles, but not quite. She threw it a little bit softer that time and with a slight arc, but the result was the same. She'd missed. I could hear her growl next to me.

Her third try was by far the closest. She threw it even softer this time but with just enough force for it to fly completely straight forward. The ball hit the bottle. The bottle. One bottle. With the sound of hardened rubber against glass, one of the bottles clattered to the floor with a clinking noise. However, far from proud of her accomplishment, Hiratsuka-sensei seemed to be even angrier than before if anything.

"Is that a joke? I threw it perfectly that time! This is rigged, completely rigged I tell you." She began saying heatedly.

Going off her antics alone, it was apparent that Hiratsuka-sensei was a sore loser. A really, really big one at that. I wanted to laugh but I held it in.

"Sorry. Better luck next time." The attendant drawled on uninterestedly. Hiratsuka-sensei merely glared at him for a second, before opening her mouth to clearly let out a string of expletives or something else entirely inappropriate, but she was interrupted by another voice.

"Would you mind if I gave it a try?" I asked the attendant.

He blinked at me for a second before shrugging. "Sure, why not. Might as well at this point." He answered. I took out my wallet and handed him a 500-yen note.

Hiratsuka-sensei looked at me, her mouth still open, before guffawing. "You really think you can do better than I did? You're practically losing your footing just standing still." She said in a jab clearly aimed towards my slightly swaying form. So sue me, I was still a _tiny_ bit dizzy.

"I do actually. Just sit back and watch." I answered.

She let a snort escape from her nostrils. "Really… You sure do talk big for someone who got creamed over at the batting cages earlier."

"Pitching and batting. Two completely separate things. Yutaku Enatsu could vouch for me on that one." I said as I picked up one of the baseballs from the counter.

"Fine. Show me what you can do then." Hiratsuka-sensei crossed her arms and looked at me with an amused smirk.

I took a deep breath before eyeing the glass bottles with a look of concentration. _I can do this_ , I breathed. I was a decent pitcher; maybe not the best batter, but if playing little league for two years had taught me anything, it was that I had a decent toss. With one last squint of concentration and squeeze of my hand, I loosed the ball. …And missed.

A sharp laugh erupted to my side. "Yu… Yutaku. Ha, Enat… su…. Ah," she struggled to speak through her laughs, wiping a tear from her eye in the process. I noticed that the attendant was struggling to stifle a chortle as well, so I took turns glaring at them both. When Hiratsuka-sensei finally calmed down a bit, she said through cupped hands, "At least he could _pitch!"_ She then started laughing again.

"Whatever… I've got two more tries." I mumbled to myself before picking up the next ball.

She was one to talk. She'd missed all three times, and pretty horribly I might add. I should've given her more shit when I'd had the chance.

I gripped the ball, breathed out slightly again, and kept my target in the center of my field of vision. I threw with a sense of purpose this time and… it hit. All the bottles came crashing to the floor with clinks and clanks.

Hiratsuka-sensei stopped laughing suddenly and stared. The attendant shrugged, and I smirked.

"I can't believe…" she whispered, her eyes slightly wide. I was enjoying her shocked expression, but even with how proud I was of my achievement, I was taken aback by how surprised she seemed. Winning one of these games was hard, but it wasn't like I'd just parted the red sea or something…

"It's really not all that big a d—" I started.

"I CAN'T BELIEVE HOW RIGGED THIS GAME IS!" Hiratsuka-sensei suddenly bellowed out with an accusing finger pointed in my direction. I blinked out of what was probably shock. "You paid this guy to set all of this up didn't you? No wonder I couldn't knock em' over even when I know I hit those bottles dead on!" She said. "And you," she pointed to the attendant who was holding a decently-sized stuffed lion in his hands. His expression didn't change at all. "Taking a bribe from a damn kid? Don't you have any shame?" She fumed. "What, nothing to say for yourself?"

The attendant stared back and blinked once. "Yeah, if neither of you wants this, I'm gonna go ahead and keep it."

I grabbed the plush from his hands and dragged Hiratsuka-sensei by the arm away from the booth. "Thanks. Have a good one." I said to the attendant who shrugged and resumed his earlier activity of packing away the booth's contents.

When we were finally out of earshot, I couldn't help but break out into a full and complete fit of laughter. I could count all of the times I'd laughed that hard in the past few years on one hand, and all of the times I'd actually cried from laughing with just one finger. Two now. When I finally regained my sanity, I shook my head slightly.

"What was that back there?" I asked.

She shrugged and smiled. "I dunno, I'm drunk."

I laughed. "Are you really?"

"Buzzed at least."

She smiled, and suddenly her face split out into a grin, and then she started laughing wildly. I couldn't help but once again lose my composure and break into a fit myself, our laughs echoing in the night and across the now nearly deserted Sobu fields.

"Here." I said, pushing the plush lion into her hands.

She grabbed it but looked taken aback. "Huh? What are you doing? This is yours."

"That game was 'rigged' remember?" I said with air quotations. "I guess that means this rightfully belongs to you." I eyed her out of the corner of my vision and smiled.

"Ha, very funny. You know I was joking." She pushed the fuzzy little toy back at me, but I threw my hands up in a surrendering gesture, refusing to offer any substantial grip.

"Nah, take it," I insisted. "You said that you just wanted one prize by the end of the night and you'd be happy. Looks like you can be happy now."

She scoffed. "I said I wanted to _win_ one prize. Getting it handed to me on a silver platter is hardly the same thing."

I shrugged. "It's better than nothing."

"Take it back already." She tried pushing it towards me again, but I moved slightly out of the way.

"I'm serious. I have absolutely zero use for it." I countered. "Besides, I want you to have it." I said.

She was silent for a little bit, but eventually rolled her eyes. "You're ridiculously stubborn, you know that?" Rather than at me, her face was looking down at the plush in her hands, her eyes looking oddly distant.

"I've had a good teacher."

The festival at this point was now all but officially over. Aside from some of the maintenance men and janitors who were tasked with taking the tents apart and sweeping up the trash-laden fields, there was hardly anyone left wandering around.

Hiratsuka-sensei and I walked together for a little bit before we finally reached the edge of the field, and the cusp of the street. As we approached the sidewalk, our steps began to slow.

"Well, it looks like I should get going." I said with my hands in my pockets. Despite the chilled breeze, my cheeks still felt a tiny bit warm from the alcohol. Hiratsuka-sensei stood still and didn't motion to say anything as I eyed her almost expectantly.

"I…" I started before catching myself. "I'll see you on Monday sensei." I added before turning away from her and beginning to walk.

I made it a few steps before she called out. "Wait." I stopped and turned around to face her. "It's still ice cold out here. After all the help you've given me tonight, the least I could do is offer you a ride."

I looked at her, standing still not because I was contemplating her offer per se, but for another reason. My silence prompted her to add, "If you want, of course."

I stood still for a little before answering, "Sure." I turned around and began walking in her direction.

"…Okay. I think I parked somewhere over there," she motioned to some place that wasn't quite visible from where we were standing, but I got the general idea anyway.

We walked in silence for a while, neither of us saying much until we finally made it over to a narrow residential street a few blocks west of the campus. As we approached the street, a faint glimmer caught my eye. Upon closer inspection and a slight squint on my part, I noticed that the glimmer was coming from a shiny, sleek-black car that was parked along the curb of the nearly empty street.

With the click of a button, the headlights of the car flashed, and a faint clicking sound signified the unlocking of the doors. "Hop in."

I did as I was told and jumped into the passenger side seat while Hiratsuka-sensei took the driver's. She plopped the plush into the back and breathed out slightly after she had taken a hold of the wheel. "So," She started. "That wasn't too bad a night, was it?"

She looked at me with a small smile and though her hands were placed on the wheel, she made no motion to start the engine. I looked back at her for a second, noticing her almost imperceptibly flushed face before I answered. "I guess. It could've been worse."

She hummed for a second as she turned her eyes way from me and placed them idly on the empty street in front of us. "Well, I had a great time." Her voice was soft.

Her voice was quiet, but honest. I could tell. "Oh. Yeah." I started awkwardly. How stupid. If stubborn Hiratsuka-sensei could say how she really felt, then so could I. "I guess that was the most fun I've had in a long time."

I bristled. So I'd said a little bit more than I was planning to. No big deal.

Hiratsuka-sensei turned her eyes towards me for a brief second before diverting them back to the road and smiling again. "Are _you_ drunk?" She chuckled.

I rolled my eyes, and I wanted to say no, but if I did, that wouldn't have been entirely correct. I wasn't drunk, but I was definitely still under the influence. "A little," I answered truthfully.

She giggled before her features tightened almost unnoticeably. "I think I am too."

I looked at her curiously. "What about before? I thought you said you were just buzzed."

In the pale moonlight, she looked rather odd. Not at all in a bad way, but different from how I usually saw her at school. Her delicate features looked much more pronounced under the contrast of light and dark, and her flushed pale skin looked almost… tantalizing.

She looked pensive for a second. "I suppose the alcohol took a while to sink in." She said softly.

"Oh." I replied with a nod. We sat in a slightly uncomfortable silence for a few moments before Hiratsuka-sensei spoke again.

"You know, I'm glad you agreed to come along with me tonight. God knows I would've been miserable if you hadn't been there to keep me company." I heard the slight sound of shifting fabric before Hiratsuka-sensei's face suddenly grew closer to mine. My eyes must've grown twice their size in that instant as Hiratsuka-sensei was drawing closer to me. _She couldn't possibly be…_ I felt a slight wetness on my cheek before I once again found myself looking into Hiratsuka-sensei's grey eyes. "Thanks."

Stunned, I looked back at her, fighting off the urge to put my hand to my cheek and touch the wetness and warmth that had suddenly accumulated there. "Y-Yeah. Like I said, it wasn't a problem. I had a good time." I muttered back.

We looked at each other then, a small smile on Hiratsuka-sensei's face, and what I was sure was a slightly shocked, but nevertheless content one, on mine.

I don't think anybody could say without lying that looking straight into the eyes of another person for an extended period of time was not at the very least, a little awkward. So as we looked at one another for a while, I found the situation _slightly_ awkward, but oddly enough, it was also a comfortable stare if that made sense.

"Oh. There's a little…" The silence was interrupted by Hiratsuka-sensei's quiet voice. I furrowed my brow a bit, not understanding what she was referring to. Her face seemed oddly meditative, and not as relaxed as her soft voice might have otherwise led one to believe it would be. Regardless, an errant thought slipped into my brain at that moment. ' _Hiratsuka-sensei really was a beautiful woman.'_

"Let me get it." She whispered before leaning towards me.

Almost as if it had a mind of its own, my heart started beating faster. At this point, I wasn't sure what I was thinking, or even if I was thinking anything at all. All I knew was that Hiratsuka-sensei was leaning towards me for reasons unknown, and that her face looked radiant in the moonlit car. She licked her lips once.

If asked today, I still couldn't say which of us had taken that initial leap and started this whole thing, but the one thing I did know was that we'd both very clearly and very obviously wanted to do it. Before I knew it, my lips were dancing and massaging Hiratsuka-sensei's unbelievably soft ones. I felt a slight pressure around my neck suddenly and the aroma of leather and lavender shampoo filled my nostrils. We stayed there for I can't say how long, kissing, among other things.

That was my first kiss, and I couldn't tell you if I was any good or not, but what I did know was that I was pouring my passion and every stray desire I'd ever had for Hiratsuka-sensei into that one moment. I was enjoying myself beyond belief, content to let the feeling of sheer ecstasy and pleasure roll over me as I surrendered to a gorgeous woman.

Suddenly, I was standing on the sidewalk as Hiratsuka-sensei shook her head and started the engine. "I'm sorry Hikigaya." She muttered. I could barely hear her through the closed windows of her car. And in what passed like a blur, Hiratsuka-sensei had soared down the street, leaving nothing but the roaring sound of the engine and the smell of exhaust behind her. Oh yeah, and me as well.

I stood there for a second, my face still flushed from… _that_ , and alcohol, and whatever else. I blinked a few times before realizing exactly what had happened.

I had to walk home that night.

* * *

 **AN:** And there it is! I'm excited to get into the rest of the story, and I apologize if I was too long-winded in some parts of the chapter. That's just the way I write and though it might be annoying to some, I think most people like it if not only for the fact that it gives them more to read. Anyways, thanks for reading and leave a review! I like those.


	4. The Inertia Principle

**Chapter 4: The Inertia Principle  
**

For the few days after that I called, texted, and even at one point considered sending a traditional print letter to Hiratsuka-sensei to ask her about just what it was that had happened a few nights before. My efforts bore no fruit though. I didn't receive a single text back, and every call I made went straight to voicemail after one solitary ring.

If I were being completely honest, I saw myself as a person who would normally try to avoid drama and confrontation—even, and maybe especially, after something as out-of-left-field as what had happened in Hiratsuka-sensei's car the other night, had happened.

However, chalk it up to my morbid curiosity, or maybe my dumb teenage hormones, or maybe it was just the fact that I was craving any sort of confirmation that what I _thought_ had happened, had actually happened, but I desperately wanted to at least talk to Hiratsuka-sensei. Maybe not even about that; just about anything. Anything to just see her again. I found myself wanting to see her again badly, which was unusual given that it was Hiratsuka-sensei we were talking about.

I thought it'd be different once school finally came around and she'd be forced to talk to me, if not only to call my name during roll call, but it wasn't. She was absent that Monday. And that Tuesday. And when Wednesday finally rolled around, she might as well not have shown up at all.

She didn't take roll like I had been expecting. She simply glanced over her folder and took a look at every student in the room to make sure they were present. Her eyes always seemed to gloss over when they neared my seat, however.

More often than not, she would be the first one out the door when the bell rang, and when she wasn't, she wouldn't even bother looking in my direction as I walked past her desk. I always wanted to say something, but I never could quite work up the courage to just march up to her and confront her. It was a different story over the phone or text, where I would've been able to communicate with just my fingers or my voice, and wouldn't have had to look at her, but just seeing her distant, bored face as I neared her was enough to make me turn away each and every time.

I tried a few more times that week, often catching her in the hallways or outside after school. I'd walk up to her, but she'd either walk away briskly, or in the few rare instances where I did finally manage to get decently close, I'd chicken out and turn heel.

I spent most of my time during that week in shambles of sorts. I'd still had no idea what had happened, and the lack of understanding and closure almost felt suffocating to me. I mean, it was my first kiss. My first kiss with a girl. No, a woman. With Hiratsuka-sensei.

Despite what I had been expecting, we'd had a fun night together, just enjoying each other's company; or at least that's what I had thought. Between her sad apology that night, and the silent treatment she was giving me now, I had no idea where I stood with her, or even if there was anything left to stand on.

"Are you okay Hikki?" a voice asked.

I looked up from my folded arms to see Yuigahama looking at me with a puzzled expression on her face.

"Yeah. Fine." I answered shortly, before returning my head back to my arms.

Yukinoshita looked at me strangely out of the corner of her eye, but after a second, she turned back to the softcover book in her hands.

It took a slight mental-breakdown peppered with ample amounts of frustration, and several nights of staring at my ceiling before I'd decided that I'd had enough. The day after that, I walked up to Hiratsuka-sensei's desk after all the other students had made their ways out of the room.

"Hey," I said, pausing a few steps in front of her.

If she'd heard me, she made no move to indicate it. Her eyes were flitting idly across some papers on her desk, and she was tapping the end of a pen against the table's edge in a rhythmic motion. I felt slightly hurt at that moment, being ignored so openly and plainly like that. I cleared my throat in a bid to get her attention, but she didn't look up.

"Hiratsuka-sensei." I said, slightly louder this time. My hands suddenly found their ways into my pockets in what was a nervous, habitual gesture.

Although she wasn't acknowledging me directly, from what little I could see of her features, they looked to be drawn tight; she knew I was there, and that small fact gave me enough confidence to continue.

"We should talk about…" I started, but I couldn't find the willpower to continue my train of thought. Suddenly, looking at her slightly obscured face seemed harder somehow. I stood there awkwardly, thinking about exactly what I wanted to say, and how to say it. No words came out though, because I wasn't quite sure of that myself.

"Hikigaya." Her voice was sharp, but not at all malicious. The tapping of her pen stopped. "Perhaps we should forget that ever happened."

I felt a cold sweat run over my body as she finally addressed me. I just stood there for a second, not sure what to think or how to feel. She still wasn't looking at me, but she wasn't looking at the papers on her desk either.

"Oh. Yeah but," I eventually answered.

"Shouldn't you get going to club?" she interrupted.

I left soon after that.

A few days passed by before I tried again.

After being escorted to her office by an aide, I found myself once again staring at the top of her head as she shuffled papers around her desk. "Yo," I greeted.

Again, she didn't look up from her desk before saying, "I'm pretty busy. Ragarami-san can show you out."

I stood there for a moment, my eyes resting on her hidden face, before taking the hint and leaving. As I left, I thought I heard her muttering something that sounded dangerously close to 'sorry' under her breath.

I don't know why I was so insistent on getting some answers out of Hiratsuka-sensei, but I was. Well, actually, I did know why.

'We're close.' Those were her own words. We'd had a decent rapport for a while now; at least one that was involved enough that Hiratsuka-sensei would see fit to call its two members 'close.' Aside from that… I had thought that night had been nothing short of amazing, and it was rare that I used words like that to describe anything. And what had happened in the car… well, that was pretty amazing too.

At this point, I'd reasoned a thousand times in my head that the mature thing to do would be to talk about what had happened, but… There was the damn answer right there. It was Hiratsuka-sensei, and despite her age, I couldn't exactly say that she was the most mature person I'd ever known. I felt slightly cross at having the obligation rest solely upon me, but it was obvious that it I didn't take the leap, nothing would ever be resolved.

So I tried again, and I failed again.

It wasn't until a week after that that she even spoke another word to me.

"Hikigaya. I need to see you after class," she said simply at the beginning of the period. Her face looked oddly dark. I couldn't do much but nod in agreement as I took my seat.

Class was boring and predictable as usual, and before long, I found myself standing in front of Hiratsuka-sensei's desk with equal parts annoyance and curiosity. She looked up at me for a second before turning to her desk drawer and pulling out a stack of papers. She flipped through the disheveled pile, before pulling out a small packet joined by a staple in its corner. "Recognize this?" she asked plainly. Although her eyes were turned in my direction, it almost seemed as if she weren't looking at me at all.

I returned her impassive look and shrugged. "Not really. Should I?"

"Here, take a closer look," she said as she pushed the paper closer towards my face. Annoyed, I squinted my eyes to compensate. It was the paper I'd written a few days ago. With a big C- circled in red marker on it, no less.

"Well, before I hit you with the book, do you have anything to say for yourself?" she asked. Although Hiratsuka-sensei looked at me with a neutral expression on her face, her voice betrayed a slight hint of anger, or disappointment, or both. Whatever the case, it really irked me.

I couldn't help but narrow my eyes as my hands found their ways into the pockets of my pants. "Yeah, I've been preoccupied I guess," I started roughly. "I've been dealing with a lot of stuff on my own these past few weeks."

She stared at me for a second, her eyes still hard, before setting the paper on her desk with slightly more force than necessary. "Don't make excuses Hikigaya. You're above that," she said in a low voice.

"It's not an excuse if it's true," I answered. I fixed her with a cold, hard glare. Almost as if I weren't in control of them at all, my fists lightly curled on each other. A week and a half's worth of being left in the dark and being outright ignored caught up to me in that moment.

She closed her eyes for a second and breathed out lightly through her nostrils. "Listen, what you do in your free time is of little consequence to me. You can spend your days at home daydreaming or fantasizing or whatever. I don't care," she stated coldly. I could feel annoyance flash across my face at her choice of words. "However, what _is_ of consequence to me is your academic status in my class. Which has dropped. Significantly."

…Really? So after a week of ignoring me and brushing what happened at the festival under the rug, she calls me up to her desk, alone might I add, to talk to me about academics? I scoffed.

"What does it matter? If my overall grade is above the passing threshold, then I'm doing a fine job, aren't I?" I asked sourly.

"That's besides the point," she answered with an air of solemnity. Her features softened before she breathed out lightly. "What happened Hikigaya? This is the first truly mediocre paper you've turned in. I didn't think you had it in you to write something this bad." I thought I saw a flicker of humor cross her face for a second, but I chalked it up to the crappy fluorescent lighting of the room.

"Bad? You gave me a C- didn't you? That's way above passing. Above average even." I kept my gaze focused on her stoic features. I found the mundanity of arguing about a single grade when there was something much more pressing to discuss, highly ironic. I ignored it.

"Doesn't matter. This drastic a drop in performance is enough to warrant attention," she said. "One paper on its own isn't going to be enough to get you in too much trouble, but you'd better shape up before this gets serious." She glared at me with two piercing irises. I didn't falter under her gaze. Suddenly, she sighed loudly and crossed her arms over her chest. "Come on… You might not believe me when I say it, but the future's important. You have your whole life ahead of you, and that includes next year, and college, and…" she paused for a brief second before looking away. "Just… don't throw it away," she whispered softly. "Not over something like this."

Her eyes sparkled with some errant emotion, but of what nature, I couldn't tell. "Something like what?" Despite myself, I asked with genuine curiosity attached.

She shook her head softly, the ends of her silky black hair swaying slightly as she did. "…Never mind." Suddenly, her face regained its impassive mask and her features tightened again before she continued. "Either way, you need to pick up the slack. I let you off easy this time because I know you're a good writer, but if you ever turn something like this in again, I'm going to fail you. Plain and simple."

I found myself struggling to keep my emotions in check, but I forced a nod. "Sure. Can I go?" I asked, suddenly finding myself completely tired of the whole situation. At least if I managed to make it to club, I could let the distraction of Yukinoshita's abusive personality squash the wandering thoughts out of me. At least if that happened, I wouldn't have to struggle with the jumbled mess of emotions that I was constantly forced to deal with—even if the reprieve was only for a few hours.

"Try not to be so rude. It's unbecoming, really," she said sharply. Her tone was all blades and edges, and because of that, she didn't sound remotely close to the Hiratsuka-sensei that I knew; or at least the one that I thought I knew. Nothing like the Hiratsuka-sensei I'd had so much fun with at the Autumn Festival, or the Hiratsuka-sensei that I had kissed with as much passion as I did that night. "I want to be here even less than you do. Trust me, I wouldn't have bothered to call you up here if I weren't worried about your grade."

"You've made that pretty obvious already."

Without another word, I grabbed my bag off the floor and forced my legs forwards towards the classroom door. My steps were hard and heavy, and I was almost tempted to run out of the room as fast as my feet would take me, pride be damned.

I heard the softest of sighs. "I'm just being professional," The whispered voice that came from behind me was so quiet that anybody else probably would have mistaken it for the blowing of the wind. But I heard it loud and clear.

I stopped immediately where I was standing, and my legs came to a sharp halt.

The nerve of this woman. _The damn nerve_. Yes, Hiratsuka-sensei was my teacher and elder, but at that moment, I decided to shirk and damn every scrap of cultural training I'd developed in my life and tell her off. Tell her off like she deserved to be told off. Like she deserved for giving me that amazing kiss and then ignoring me for two weeks.

"Yeah, you sure were being 'professional' when you forced your tongue down my throat that night," I bit out angrily. I sharply turned on my heel to face her, and stared at her with as much venom as I could muster.

Her eyes widened slightly and surprise and shock suddenly crossed her features. When she regained her composure, her eyes narrowed and she stood from her chair. "What did you just say?"

"Oh, nothing. I was just recalling a pleasant memory I had about something that happened a while ago. Actually, you might be familiar with it. It was the one where we were trading spit in your car at the end of the Autumn Festival," I breathed out. I couldn't help but let these words flow unbidden from my mouth; these words that I'd mulled over during sleepless nights and restless evenings. "Or did you forget already? I mean, I guess it didn't mean anything to you considering you won't even spare a second to talk to me about it, but yeah. That's what I just said, and that's what I've been thinking about for weeks now."

My voice was growing louder and louder as I spoke. In the back of my mind, I was idly thankful that the classroom and the hallways were empty on account of school being over. "What _was_ that? And what's with the cold shoulder treatment you've been giving me? Was it really so bad that you had to ignore me for two weeks just to prove your point? I really don't get it."

Her face was red, and her brow was furrowed so deep that her forehead began to crinkle. "No, that's…" she began, her voice sounding jagged and splintered. She sighed. "Goddamnit Hikigaya. I thought we both agreed to never talk about that again."

My own eyes narrowed. "I never agreed to anything. Except that kiss maybe, but if I'd known how much trouble it would cause, I wouldn't have even shown up that night," I said, my curled fist lightly shaking. She opened her mouth to answer, but I didn't give her the chance. "I would've left you alone with your retarded booze and let you drink yourself into a coma if I had known that this is what would've happened." I let the acid hang off my words.

She regarded me coldly, but I could tell from the glimmer in her eyes that what I'd said had hurt her. _Good. Maybe now she'll feel a sliver of what I've been feeling lately._

"You're really one of a kind, you know that Hikigaya?" she asked with a slight shake of her head. With her face turned towards the floor, I couldn't see her eyes. "I really do mean that."

"Say what you want, but don't pretend that I don't have a good reason for being mad," I started. "You can't mess with me like that, and then just brush me off without even acknowledging it." I pressed on angrily. "The least you could've done was answer my texts or something."

"I…" she started, her body tensing before deflating. "I don't know what to say," she breathed out with a sigh. Her voice was quiet. Maybe it was the anger that I felt, or perhaps it was the sense of betrayal speaking, but somewhere inside me I felt a perverse satisfaction at watching Hiratsuka-sensei crumble in on herself.

"How about anything? You could've said anything. You can _say_ anything. Just don't pretend like it never happened," I started, my voice lowering. "I mean for kissing me and throwing me away the minute after, don't you at least owe me an explanation?" I asked. She kept her head down, and looked away.

I suddenly felt incredibly out of place, raising my voice at my teacher (in school no less), and pouring my emotions out so plainly and openly like I was doing. But I didn't care, really; not in that instant. I was craving answers, anything that would put me at ease after the week and a half of turmoil and confusion that I'd been forced to endure. One of the thoughts that had been plaguing me the most found its way into my head at that moment. "I mean was it that bad? I know it couldn't have been that great for you or anything, but that was the first time I had ever kissed anyone, but I tried and—"

"Goddamnit! I liked it!" she suddenly yelled. I bristled at the sudden, loud noise. Her face suddenly turned up to face mine and her cheeks were lined with tears. "That's why I didn't want to talk about it! Don't you get it Hikigaya?" She looked at me with imploring eyes as she finally tore her gaze away from her shoes.

Silence engulfed the room as Hiratsuka-sensei stared at me with tear-streaked cheeks and a deep frown on her lips.

I blinked once in surprise before I could completely gather my thoughts. I found my mouth moving on its own after a few moments had passed. My voice was soft. "If you liked it then why have you been ignoring me for the past two weeks?"

She wiped at her swollen cheeks with the sleeve of her labcoat before responding. She turned her gaze from me. "Do I really need to spell it out for you? I thought you would've understood."

I think in a normal situation, I would have been tempted to throw out a snide and sarcastic response in a situation like that, but because I could practically hear the genuine sadness that was seeping out of her voice with each and every syllable uttered, the thought never even crossed my mind. It was clear that she _had_ thought about that night, and clearly, she was dealing with her own feelings and issues regarding the matter. Suddenly, I found any and all anger that I'd held drain away from me, like raindrops sliding off the satiny top of an umbrella.

"I'm not a psychic. I'm not even that smart really," I shrugged. My voice sounded oddly deflated and held no malice. What I had said was true though, at least when it came to understanding emotions or other complicated things of the sort. When it came to things like that, I was out of my depth. "I don't think I'll ever understand unless you tell me."

She breathed in deeply before scrubbing another tear from her face. She sighed once before opening her mouth. "I liked it. I like you," she said softly. Despite the situation and the inanity of it, I could feel a faint heat rushing to my cheeks.

She sighed again. "I wasn't trying to hurt you, you know," she began after a beat. "I… I didn't know how to feel after what happened." Her eyes were glossy. "That's not to say that I didn't know how I felt that night. I mean, I was having so much fun. With you. More fun than I'd had in years, even," she continued. "It was just… I knew that I _shouldn't_ have felt that way." She shook her head slightly and a stray tear fell to the floor. "I mean, for God's sake, you're half my age."

"That's not true." I frowned. I knew she was exaggerating, but she was only twelve years older than me. If anything, she was like a glorified nee-chan, and that was a stretch in itself.

She let out a wet chuckle. "Well, even if we were to generously brush that aside, the fact remains that I'm your teacher, and the last time I checked, sloppily making out with a student isn't exactly something that's encouraged by the teachers' handbook," she laughed almost humorlessly.

I wanted to say something, to comfort her maybe, but I couldn't think of a single thing. All I could do was watch as she smiled sadly at me and brushed away the occasional tear. "I wasn't completely drunk you know. I knew what I was doing when I offered you a ride home," she said softly. I felt my breath catch in my throat as her eyes found mine.

"I guess those girls in college were right when they said that I was a manipulative bitch." Her face adopted a slight frown as she spoke, her features curling up slightly. "'The tactician', some of them called me. And I never admitted it, but they were right in some ways I suppose." Her face looked reflective for a moment. "Back then, I could get any guy I wanted. For a night, anyways. I was good; I knew exactly what to say and what to do to get a guy to come home with me, and it always ended up working out," she said. Vaguely, the ringing of the seventh period bell registered in my mind.

"But in the morning, he'd be gone. I could offer him an omelet—that might make him stay for a few extra minutes. Or sometimes if I was feeling particularly needy that day, I'd offer him round two, and he'd take it of course," she said with what almost sounded like pride. "But naturally, he'd leave the second he was finished. Before I'd even had a chance to get my underwear on in one case." I flinched. "Jesus. I must be sick in the head. That night with you, I didn't even take a minute to think about it. How wrong it was for me to take advantage of you, a minor drunk off his ass for the first time from booze _I_ had given him." she spoke quickly, almost as if her thoughts were finding their way out of her mouth as soon as they were realized. "I just did it, you know? I saw the chance and I took it. With someone half my age. With someone I actually like and care about. I couldn't help myself." Suddenly, her eyes were no longer on mine.

"How fucked up am I?" she whispered softly.

"You're not," I answered her firmly. She turned her gaze towards me slowly, and I could see that her shoulders were slightly shaking. "You're making it sound like you were the only one who had a choice in the matter. I kissed you back," I said. "I wanted to."

She scoffed suddenly, her voice still shaky. "You're just a kid! It wasn't your fault. I should never have given you the choice to begin with."

I felt slightly annoyed at that. "Don't treat me like that. I'm not just a stupid kid."

She sighed quietly. "You're mature for your age, but that doesn't change the fact that yes, you are a kid. You're barely seventeen."

"Yeah, but age doesn't—" I started, but she cut me off.

"It does matter. You might not realize it now, but that's _because_ you're young," she said.

There was a silence for a time as we stood there, both high off swirling thoughts and errant emotions. Nearly half a minute passed before Hiratsuka-sensei breathed out and spoke again.

"You know, I haven't been ignoring you because I regretted what happened. I was hoping that you would have realized that on your own a lot sooner," she said quietly, but firmly. "The reality is much, much worse. I _wish_ that I regretted what happened. No, I was ignoring you because even though my conscience was telling me—no—screaming at me that what I did was wrong and terrible, I _didn't_ regret it," she said. "And it scared the shit out of me."

I took in her words in silence. The only sounds audible to me in that empty classroom was Hiratsuka-sensei's soft voice and my own thudding heart.

She sighed. "It's been a long time since I've been this attracted to someone Hikigaya, and if you were five years older, I'd pounce on you without a regret in the world… but you're not," she said softly. "You're seventeen, and you're my student to top it all off. I wanted you so badly that I ignored my own conscience and didn't give a damn about how my actions would end up affecting your feelings. I'm selfish. That's how I've always been." She looked down at her feet. "This... whatever this is… whatever it might've been… it isn't healthy."

I felt my brow crinkle. Who was she to say that this wasn't healthy? Didn't I get a say in it at all? I was young; I knew that, and sure she had a lot more experience than I did, and she was also my teacher, but that didn't matter, did it? The cynical, pragmatic side that dominated my thinking for so long, of course realized that what she was implying was risky, dangerous, and on some fundamental level, _wrong_ , but the part of myself that governed my emotions and damned all logic out the window, told me otherwise. That I found her irresistible, and judging from what she'd told me, she felt the same way.

"I… I want to try." The words rolled past my lips without my permission.

She blinked once, and looked at me sadly, her beautiful grey eyes still moist from her earlier tears. "We're at completely different points in our lives. I'm vulnerable, desperate even. You don't want this Hikigaya. Trust me, you don't. I'm selfish, and needy. You have your whole life ahead of you. You have a future. Don't throw it away. Don't let my selfishness drag you down with me," she said quietly. "This… would end up being one of the biggest mistakes of our lives."

 _I don't care._

In a flash of motion and frenzy, I had bridged the distance between us and had grabbed her around the waist. I moved my mouth to Hiratsuka-sensei's and kissed her as passionately as I could. I noted the vague taste of salt on my lips, but I didn't care. I didn't care at all.

A soft moan escaped from her throat, and I could feel her arms wrap around me as she held me. I was awash with ecstasy as our lips crashed, and I heard the clattering of papers and pens as they fell clumsily to the floor.

' _It's not going to be a mistake.'_ I told myself. _'I won't let it be.'_

Our relationship began soon after that.

* * *

 **AN:** Whoa! Holy crap, Hikigaya's a player I'll tell you what. Anyways, is there a category for melodrama yet? Because I feel like this might just belong in there if there is. In any case, before any complaints are made, heed the author's note warning from chapter 1. I'm playing it hard and loose with the characterization, so I apologize if there are some slight changes to characters (mostly Hikigaya), but eh. That's how it's going to be. I think I'm going to keep the chapters shorter, just so I can update faster, and so I don't feel like as much of a bum as when I withhold chapters for weeks to work on them. I think this arrangement will benefit us both, so don't worry. But apologies if this chapter is rough in any way. I wrote the majority of it, like 7/8ths of it, in one night (read: tonight) and I was decently satisfied with it, so I wanted to get it out right away. I hope you guys enjoy. Do leave a review if you like what you see, and one even if you hate what you see. Til' next time and thanks for reading.


	5. Mine and Her Indecision

**Chapter 5: Mine and Her Indecision  
**

 _[Present Day]_

"Hikigaya!"

...

I collapsed on the plush material with an unceremonious plop, the coiling sounds of the springy mattress briefly reminding me where I currently was in my dazed state. I breathed out shakily as stars began to clear from my vision and rational thought once again found its way back into my brain.

The dark room around me wasn't anything particularly noteworthy or interesting. It looked like any other apartment building bedroom, with not much in the small space standing out aside from the clothes spilling out messily from the dresser, and a couple of empty bottles of cherry Vodka lying discarded on the stained carpet. The room was relatively small in size, outfitted with two currently open windows, a closet, and an adjoining bathroom that also led out into the hallway through a second door.

At first glance, it didn't seem like the anything in the apartment warranted, or even deserved a second glance. It was a pretty bland looking place; simple by design and identical to probably thousands of others in the greater Chiba area. Although, that being said, this place held a surprising amount of significance for me. And that wasn't just because here was where I first lost my virginity.

"Well, that was certainly much better," a voice breathed out in the dark.

After I had finally defaulted to a somewhat normal breathing pattern again, I turned over to my side and came face-to-face with Hiratsuka-sensei. Although the room was dim, I could see her sweaty, supple form in the vestiges of moonlight that peeked in through the ajar windows.

"Yeah…" I replied in between breaths.

She looked at me with a small smile for a second before she turned onto her back and chuckled. "Now, just because I complimented you for once, don't go getting a big head or anything." She laughed a soft laugh as she leaned over the side of the bed and grabbed at something on the floor.

My back let out a cracking noise as I propped myself into a sitting position. "Right," I responded as I rubbed gingerly at my sore neck. I idly noted that the room looked like a warzone, an explosion of discarded clothes blown every which way like dismembered limbs on a battlefield. "I wouldn't dream of it. Speaking highly of myself would be pretty out of character for me." I angled my eyes slightly towards my left to Hiratsuka-sensei's raised form. She was slipping a pair of black, lacy underwear around her ankles.

She chuckled before saying, "Hey now, I'm not saying you should be _too_ hard on yourself," she started. "Credit where credit is due. You're improving. It might be a little slow-going, sure, but you are."

"Uh huh. Thanks," I answered. I stared appreciatively at Hiratsuka-sensei as she stood and sauntered over to her messy dresser. She pulled out an oversized nightshirt and wrapped it around her body in a fluid, practiced motion.

"See something you like?" she asked, her back still turned to me as her fingers worked the buttons closed. I blinked once when I realized she was talking to me, though it wasn't like she could be talking to anyone else.

"Lots of things," I said.

Her fingers paused for the briefest of instants. "Cute, Romeo." Although her back was still turned to me, I could hear the sarcasm in her voice. She quickly glanced at her reflection in the mirror, and I caught a glimpse of grey irises regarding me for a second. After a moment, she spoke again. "Time?"

I blinked once and turned my attention to the alarm clock on the nightstand. "Almost eleven," I answered.

I could see her head nod slowly in the mirror as she absently ran her fingers through her long hair. "Hmm," she hummed. "It's pretty late."

"Kind of," I shrugged absently. I idly noted that her voice sounded slightly off. I wasn't a bona fide expert on her behaviors or mannerisms or anything, but given how closely I'd become acquainted with her and how much time I'd spent around her lately, it seemed as if I had developed this eerie ability to detect shifts in her mood—at least when it concerned me. This was one of those instances. For reasons I couldn't quite identify, I felt a tiny annoyance prickle at me.

"Not kind of. It is." Her voice was quiet but firm. "Especially for a school night."

I stared at the back of her head. Unconsciously, my fingers gripped lightly around the cotton sheets of her bed. "If you want me to go, you can just say so," I shrugged.

She looked at me in the mirror again before turning around completely. Suddenly, she let out a laugh, a short one that didn't sound the least bit authentic. "Can you try not to sound so cross about it?" she asked. Her voice was controlled and her face wore a semi-amused expression as she spoke.

I regarded her for a second before answering. "I can try. I don't know how much good it would do though."

Her brow furrowed almost imperceptibly, but it was easy enough for my trained eye to detect. She stared at me for a moment before sighing out. "It's not that I'm itching to kick you out or anything, but you've got school tomorrow and I've got papers to grade. Papers which I haven't even had a chance to take a look at yet," she said darkly. She sighed again. "Come on. Don't be such a sourpuss about it. We've had our fun, now it's time to deal with the real stuff."

I fought the urge to roll my eyes. "The real stuff huh?" I muttered under my breath. I knew I was being difficult, but it wasn't like I didn't have my reasons. And it wasn't like this was the first time that one of our conversations played out like this.

Her eyebrow rose ever so slightly. "Yeah, the real stuff. You know, you going to school, me working way too hard at my woefully underpaid job, et cetera, and et al." Her tone sounded vaguely amused, but her features were stony. When I didn't answer, she continued in a slightly more serious tone. "You know, the wonderful world outside these four walls that consists of things other than fingering and banging," she said. She rolled her eyes at my blank expression. "Just because you're getting some now doesn't mean it's up and disappeared. The world we live in doesn't work like that."

I decided that I didn't like her condescending tone. I mean, who did she think she was talking to? Perhaps her words might have held some merit if I were some run-of-the-mill, stalwart youth, but as I'm sure she and everyone else knew by now, that wasn't the case. "You don't need to tell me," I started, my voice even. "I already have a pretty good idea of what the world's like. I'm the last person that needs a lecture on social obligations and the injustices of society. It's a waste of your breath to say something I already know."

Her expression grew into one of amusement. "Oh, is that so?" she asked, her voice practically dripping sarcasm. "Well mister worldly knowledge, I'd like to formally extend an apology for my vastly misinformed words then. I guarantee it won't happen again, _sir_." I imagined her exaggerated hand gestures were meant to drive home the extent of her smartassedness. "In fact, maybe you can give _me_ a lecture on the topic when your busy schedule permits," she said. One finger found its way to her chin and began tapping it in a faux absent gesture. "Then again, getting a lecture on important topics from someone who still lives with his parents and doesn't even know how to properly put on a condom might not be the most beneficial thing for me. I'll take a rain check on that I guess," she shrugged.

Miraculously, amazingly, expectedly, she managed to make me feel like a child again. I felt my blood boil almost immediately for it. "You call me a smartass, but you should know your own comments aren't half bad either." My eyes were hard and somewhere in the back of my mind I hoped that they properly communicated the extent of my annoyance in that moment. "But yeah. Just keep being condescending and treating me like a kid if it makes you feel better." _There was a trend if I ever saw one._

She regarded me with folded arms before sighing out loudly. She rubbed her fingers against her temple for a few seconds before addressing me. "Okay, let's just drop it," she started. "I _do_ need you to leave tonight, but I don't want you doing so with a bad taste in your mouth," she sighed. "I'm… sorry about that. I just… I guess work has me frazzled right now. I know school isn't a walk in the park for you either with exams coming up, but I'm stressed out," she breathed.

A ghost of a smile tugged at her lips. "Remember I'm not kicking you out to be mean or anything. I just… need a little time alone." Her grey eyes finally lifted to meet mine and I met her gaze. "Sorry?" she offered quietly.

Her apologetic truce caught me off guard. I sighed, and scratched at the back of my neck, deflating a little as I did so. "Yeah. It's fine," I answered. "I guess I didn't really consider how the exams have been affecting you with you having to help with counseling and grading and everything." I chanced a glance at her face. "It's been pretty busy huh?"

"It has," she answered with a small smile.

I returned the gesture and coughed once. "Uh… Alright. I'll get going then. Since it's my turn to prepare lunch for Komachi, I guess I shouldn't have stayed too late anyways." I sighed, feeling slightly drained.

"Right. Thanks Hikigaya," she started softly. "Again, I'm sorry to put you out like this. I'll make it up to you, promise," she added with a light voice. I nodded in response as I picked up my various articles of clothing and began slipping them on.

I felt the cool material of my shirt rub against my skin as I slipped it over my head. After finishing the buttons on my shirt and fastening the clasp on my uniform slacks, I took a moment to let my mind wander and delve into thought.

I was slightly disoriented by how fast the tone of the conversation had shifted. What had started becoming increasingly more antagonistic by the sentence, petered out as quickly as it came and died with just a few awkward apologies. I wanted to say that it was a good thing that we were seemingly able to resolve our issues so easily, but something in the back of my mind told me that it wasn't normal for a new couple to be arguing so frequently in the first place. It seemed as if the defining characteristic of our relationship was our ability to get under each other's skins—an ability that we both seemed to possess in spades lately.

"And Hikigaya?"

Her smooth voice brought me out of my thoughts. I turned my head in her direction. "Yeah?"

"Hurry please. I really need to get to these papers."

I heard the front door click shut behind me.

* * *

Naturally, the hallways at Sobu High became incredibly packed the second the final bell rung. Students wanted to get out of the educational facilities as soon as possible, and as a result, they swarmed, pushed, and elbowed their ways through each other in attempts to get through the front gates, and subsequently to the popular shopping centers near the campus, or their friends' houses, or whatever.

Although normally I would wait a few extra minutes for the crowds to die down a little bit before I made my way out of the classroom, today was different. In what I recognized to be a rather out-of-character move, I'd decided that I wanted to get to club as soon as possible, which meant leaving for the special building as soon as I was able. As a result, I was caught in the crossfire and was currently ensnared deep within the sea of swarming students. I winced as a stray elbow found its way into my ribcage and someone stomped carelessly on my foot.

Hiratsuka-sensei had informed me that she had a meeting to get to after school, and would be busy for the rest of the afternoon and most likely the remainder of the evening as well. It was slightly disappointing to hear, but I shrugged it off and agreed that we would have a chance to see each other the next day. Although my initial plans were unexpectedly shattered, I decided that moping around would be pointless, and that the free time that I had suddenly come into could be utilized for better purposes. Purposes like actually showing up to club for once.

It had certainly been a while since I'd had a chance to attend the service club meetings. I'd stop over occasionally when I had the chance, but it was usually only for a few minutes at a time before I was called away for 'academic' reasons by Hiratsuka-sensei.

At first, Yuigahama would wait for me after class so that we could walk to the special building together, but after several days of my telling her I couldn't make it that particular day, or insisting that she go on ahead, she eventually stopped waiting altogether. I certainly didn't blame her for leaving to club without me since I was the one who told her to do so in the first place, but as I threaded through the crowds alone, I thought that the walk would definitely have been more enjoyable in the presence of company. Even if the company was that of the airheaded Yuigahama.

But it went without saying that my involvement with these activities that Hiratsuka-sensei and I engaged in often took up the majority of the free time that I would have otherwise allocated to club-related activities. Because of this, I hadn't seen Yuigahama and Yukinoshita for a while, and if they were currently fulfilling requests and taking on cases, then they were doing so without my knowing.

Though if they _were_ , then I didn't fault them at all. In fact, if anything I should probably be thanking them for picking up my slack in the first place.

Between juggling my relationship with Hiratsuka-sensei and struggling to study for the upcoming exams, my life was pretty hectic. Neither was exactly a good excuse for skipping out on what was a mandated club for me, but I thought that if nothing else, Hiratsuka-sensei could talk to Yukinoshita and get me off the hook for my absences. Besides, I figured that if something really important _did_ come up, they would've sent me an e-mail or a text message asking for my help. Because they hadn't, I decided that there probably wasn't anything too serious going on.

As my steps began to gradually slow, my eyes fell upon the radiance of the setting sun that was filtering in through the hallway windows of the special building. The Autumn season was truly beautiful in the late afternoon glow. Because the sun was setting so much earlier these days, it wasn't unusual for the bright rays to be a deep orange color by the time the last bell rang.

I regarded the beautiful scenery for a second before walking further into the hall. Although it was faint, the sounds of talking and laughing could be heard even through the thick, wood paneling of the clubroom door. I absently smiled a bit before I came to a stop in front of it. I briefly considered knocking for a second before I realized how unnecessary that seemed. Even if I had been absent for two something weeks, I was still a member of the club. And members didn't need to knock. So I pulled the panels open.

"Naw Yukinon! You know me, I'm like sooo into that kind of thing. I say we do it!"

"Hmm, if you're being sincere then perhaps I'll reconsider. However, it wouldn't be very fair if I covered all of the costs, would it? If you really want to go, I'll be expecting a reimbursement check for the price of your ticket."

"Noo! But you said they were gifts. Hence, they were already paid for! I mean, I wouldn't mind spending _some_ money if it meant getting to spend time with you, but eh… I'd rather not if I could help it you know?"

A quiet laugh rung out. "Yes, I understand. I was joking Yuigahama-san. Consider it my treat this time."

"Thanks so much Yukinon! You won't regret it!"

"It's no problem. However, I believe it would be fair if next—"

The sound of an opening door cut their conversation short. Two pairs of eyes, one blue, and one pink turned to the source of the noise and by extension, the person standing at its outset.

The eyes blinked a few times before settling. I suddenly felt a chill run through my body as an errant gust of wind blew through the windows and in my direction. "Yo," I greeted. Although I normally would have started walking to my seat immediately, the deer-caught-in-headlights looks of the two girls in front of me threw me off guard and made me feel almost like… an intruder, or something. So I waited for them to respond before making any further moves.

"Oh… It's Hikki," Yuigahama said as she blinked a few times.

"Hikigaya-kun. This is a surprise," Yukinoshita said with a slight tilt of her head. "I don't think either of us were expecting to see you here."

Although at that point I had been standing there for a while, I noticed that their slightly shocked expressions hadn't changed. "Why is that? You guys didn't vote to kick me out or anything did you?" I asked.

"Oh. No, of course not," Yukinoshita started. "It's just that it's been a while since we last saw you is all."

"Yeah, it's just… unexpected seeing you here. It's almost kind of weird actually, like some kind of rare sighting you know?" Yuigahama added with a nervous chuckle. I winced.

"…Oh. Really? I didn't know that it had been that long," I answered uneasily. I unconsciously shifted my weight back and forth on my heels as I stood in place.

"Um… it hasn't I guess. I don't know, if just _feels_ like a while or something, heh," she said uneasily. She looked slightly uncomfortable as she spoke. "Anyways, yahallo Hikki. It's good to see you again."

"I see you in class every day," I pointed out.

"Oh, well that's different though. I mean, it's… ah," she began fiddling with her fingers as she addressed me. "Um. Why don't you sit down?"

I felt slightly uneasy looking at the two, but did as I was told. However, as I walked over to my usual spot, I noticed that where my chair normally sat, there was a bag instead.

"Oh! Sorry about that!" Yuigahama said as she stood up and moved to pick up her bag. She set it on the table. "We decided to put your chair back onto the rack because, you know…" she started. Her voice slightly drifted off as she spoke. "It was getting in the way, kinda. And we weren't..." I waited for her to finish, but she simply trailed off and never quite completed her thought.

I absently noticed that I couldn't see the sun very well from where I was standing. "I see. I'll go grab another one then I guess."

"Y-Yeah. Of course," Yuigahama said.

I sauntered over to the rack near the back and pulled out a collapsible chair. After lugging it over to the table in the center of the room, I unfolded it and set it down. I dropped my bag to the floor and took my seat. It (everything) felt slightly wrong, for some reason. Perhaps it was the fact that this wasn't the chair that I normally used, but the metal frame suddenly felt incredibly uncomfortable against my body.

As I leaned down to pull some random paperback book out of my bag, I noticed that the other two had both taken up their own solitary activities as well. Yukinoshita had pulled out her own book, and Yuigahama was looking away from me slightly while tapping at buttons on her tiny pink phone. It looked like their earlier conversation had dried up in my presence. I scratched awkwardly at my cheek as I watched the two out of the corner of my eye. Although they were sitting relatively still, I thought I saw Yukinoshita's eyes flick towards me once or twice.

I turned a page that I hadn't finished reading yet. I had come to the club with the expectation that I'd be able to get through at least forty pages of my light novel during the meeting's duration, but I found myself unable to concentrate on more than a few sentences at a time before my mind found itself struggling with other thoughts.

…Had the atmosphere of the club always been this stifling? I mean, a few weeks ago when I had made it a point to come here every day, it hadn't seemed this bad. Even when I was depressed about the whole Hiratsuka-sensei situation, the room didn't feel quite so… constricting.

I had only been sitting there for around ten minutes, but the clubroom now felt like a tomb, it was so silent. After not being able to endure it any longer, I coughed once before speaking.

"So, have we gotten any requests lately?" I asked with a tone that sounded more hopeful than I would have liked.

I saw Yuigahama flinch slightly at the noise. Yukinoshita, for her part, looked up from her book slowly, before turning her body slightly to face me. "Yes. We had a few, but they weren't difficult to deal with. Yuigahama-san and I took care of them with relative ease."

I nodded. "Oh. I see." Another silence passed over the room, and the sounds of plastic buttons being mashed echoed once again. "…How come you guys didn't tell me about them?"

Another silence.

"Well, simply put, we haven't seen you very often lately," Yukinoshita answered evenly. If her statement held any ill will, her voice didn't betray it. "Besides, like I said, they weren't difficult requests. We didn't n—" she paused slightly. "There was no point in disturbing you when we were more than capable of handling it ourselves." Her tone didn't hold any of the playful malice that I had associated it with, and instead, it just sounded calm.

"You could've sent me a mail or something," I said. I noticed that Yukinoshita had already turned her attention back to her book. "But I'm a member. Even if the request is easy, it's kind of my job to help out with everything and…" I wasn't able to effectively conclude my thought. To be honest, I didn't even know what I wanted to say. The whole situation felt sort of… off. I felt slightly guilty for whatever reason, but I also felt some other errant emotion that I couldn't quite identify as well.

"Oh, um I mentioned one of them to you," Yuigahama interjected with a slightly raised finger. "Kawasaki's request about the babysitting thing, but you said you were busy that day so…"

I blinked once as I vaguely recalled the situation. Oh. I did have to blow them off that time, but I _was_ busy. Getting busy, that is. "Oh, right," I said lamely. I scratched my head as I turned to face Yuigahama. I noticed that Yukinoshita was still reading, any meaningful expression absent from her delicate features. "Uh, in the future, just text me if you need help or something," I added. "I'll try to free up my schedule. I've just been… busy, I guess."

Yukinoshita's face twitched slightly as if she had wanted to say something, but it disappeared as fast as it came and her face was neutral once again.

"Ah, the exams huh?" Yuigahama asked with a slightly scrunched up face. "I hate em' too. I studied for the math section every night last week and I still don't understand half of what's going on. It's just too hard," she said sullenly.

 _That wasn't quite what I meant, but right. Those._ "Yeah… the exams," I answered vaguely. I sighed. "Sorry I haven't been able to make it to club though. I'll try to come here more often." In the back of my mind, I hoped that I wasn't lying.

"Don't worry about it Hikki. We understand," Yuigahama answered. Yukinoshita didn't offer anything else.

We sat in silence for a while, all tending to our own devices. The sun gradually sank lower in the sky, eventually signaling the end of club once its pink, late-afternoon rays penetrated the windows of the room. I packed my belongings back into my bag before picking it up off the ground and slinging it around my shoulder.

"Alright, I'm gonna go. I'll see you guys," I wanted to say tomorrow. "—later."

"Okay, bye Hikki. Be careful walking home," Yuigahama offered kindly. I nodded.

"Yes. Goodbye Hikigaya-kun," Yukinoshita answered, her eyes still focused on her book. ' _Boy, that book must be jaw-droppingly amazing for her to be that wrapped up in it.'_ I thought offhandedly.

"Yeah. Seeya."

I walked slowly towards the clubroom door, and once I was outside, closed it slowly and quietly. However, I didn't immediately depart, and instead lingered near the door. I waited patiently for a second as I stood near the room's entrance, my ear hovering above the sleek wood of the folded panels. A few seconds passed before I heard something. The voice started out soft, but gradually grew louder.

"Like I was saying before Yuigahama-san, I expect that you'll offer to treat me next time since I'm paying for this outing. Perhaps I'll be in the mood for a nice steak dinner when the time comes."

"Steak dinner?! Yukinon, I'm not made of money y'know! How about a nice bowl of ramen? Maybe I can spring for pickled egg, but that's all!"

A laugh. "That'll be fine Yuigahama-san. Thank you."

My steps echoed against the linoleum as my legs carried me through the hallway of the special building.

* * *

Nights like tonight were my favorite.

As I pulled out, I let out a breath that I hadn't even known I'd been holding as I collapsed onto my back against familiar, pleated sheets. As I stared up at the ceiling, I vaguely registered the heavy beats of my heart against my ribcage, and the movement of my chest as it fell in sync with my labored breathing.

I was in Hiratsuka-sensei's apartment again. For less than decent activities, again. And like the many other times, she started to dress immediately after we finished.

"So, how was school today?" she asked offhandedly as she reached for a cigarette on the nightstand.

She sat on the bed after she had finished dressing, her head resting against the headboard. She was wearing an unbuttoned, satiny green nightshirt, a pair of black panties, and nothing else.

"You were there," I answered.

"Only for two periods. I meant how was the rest of your day?"

"Fine, I guess." I shrugged. "I went to club again today."

She raised an eyebrow. "Really? And how did that go?"

I shrugged again. "Well, the same as yesterday I guess… It was fine."

"Just fine huh?" she asked as she drew the cigarette to her mouth.

"Is there something wrong with fine?"

"Not particularly." She inhaled her smoke again and let it out with a practiced puff. "But you don't seem very excited about seeing your friends again after two weeks."

I raised an eyebrow at her. "They're not exactly my friends," I answered truthfully.

"Oh, is that so?" she asked amusedly. "So why the long face then?"

"It's nothing. Really."

"Come on, don't you know by now that you can't hide anything from me?" she began. "Even before we started going out I could read you like a book. And now that we are, it's like I have Hikigaya vision. I could smell you brooding from a mile away."

I sighed. I guess she was right insofar as she did always have a knack for detecting when something was wrong, or was bothering me. As we were now, I didn't know whether to be grateful that she did, or annoyed that she could see through my excuses so easily. "Dunno really. Yukinoshita and Yuigahama have just been acting a little different I guess. It's no big deal."

She raised an eyebrow. "Different? How so?"

I took a moment to think over my answer. "They seem… withdrawn when I'm around," I started. My brow furrowed slightly. "It just feels different from a few weeks ago I guess."

"Ah, a few weeks ago when we weren't together yet," she said quietly.

I started at that. "What, you think they know about us?"

She paused for a second then let out a chuckle. "Huh? Of course not," she laughed. "I was just saying."

"Oh," I nodded. "But then… why? The atmosphere's honestly gotten pretty awkward. When I'm in the room they barely talk, but the second I leave they start chatting again. I don't really know what to think."

She shrugged. "I'm sure it's nothing. Don't worry so much."

I peered at her dimly illuminated face for a second before I turned my attention back to the ceiling. In any other situation, I might have been tempted to just shrug my shoulders and tell myself 'whatever happens, happens', but this situation felt altogether different. I thought the three of us had gotten to be relatively close, and to see a distance forming right in front of my eyes, and not being able to do a thing about it made me feel rather helpless. However, the thing was, this distance wasn't between each and every member or anything, but rather it seemed isolated in that it separated me from the other two, but not the other two from each other. Like so many times in my life, I felt alone again. And it wasn't a nice feeling.

"Shouldn't I be concerned though?" I started. "Speaking from a purely professional standpoint, I should be able to get along with my coworkers without there being any awkwardness. I feel like I should try to resolve this before things get worse."

She eyed me curiously. "Taking the proactive approach huh? That's uncharacteristic of you."

"Not really," I shrugged. "It's just that if I have to be involved in this mandated club, then I at least want to be on good terms with the other members. It's common sense." I scratched idly at my chest. "Oh yeah, and I don't know if I've thanked you enough times already, but _thank you_ for forcing me to join this club in the first place. It really was kind of you to pile on more work for me in addition to all the school stuff I'm already burdened with," I joked.

I was expecting a chuckle or a sarcastic remark from the woman next to me, but none came. "You know, since I was the one who signed you up, I could take you off the roster pretty easily," she said quietly. "I'm also the club's official advisor so there wouldn't really be much room for argument on their side." Her voice and tone sounded oddly detached.

I blinked and turned to face her. "Huh? I was kidding. That's not really the issue h—"

"No, no. That actually does sound like a good idea though. You'll have more time after school for things that are more… exciting," she added. Although her tone sounded playful, she looked to be lost in thought. "The objective in the first place was to make you into less despicable of a human being, and I think you've shown that you've matured." Her eyes focused suddenly and she blinked. "I mean, being able to seduce a woman of my caliber isn't an easy feat you know, so I guess you have really grown up for the better. Which means there isn't much of a point in keeping you shackled to mandatory service anymore, is there?"

I froze. Was she really suggesting that I quit the club? That easily, and that rashly? Sure, if she had presented me this opportunity when I had first started, I would've jumped on it without a glance backwards, but now… "Slow down. What about the others? The idea of being able to laze around in the afternoon is tempting, but I can't just ditch them after all we've been through." I winced at the sentimentality that leaked out of my voice.

She turned to face me, her thoughtful expression from earlier all but gone. "Well, judging from what you said, it sounds like they don't really want you around anyways."

My breath caught in my throat, and I sputtered out a protest. "N-no. What I meant was that they just seemed slightly uncomfortable when I was there," I started. "I don't really know why, but maybe it's because I hadn't been to club in a while. You know, maybe they're just upset that I haven't been spending time with them or something. I've been busy being with you and maybe they're annoyed that our time together is cutting into club activities. I don't know."

She rolled her eyes. "I highly doubt they care whether you're there or not." I felt slightly miffed at what practically amounted to an attack on my character. And from Hiratsuka-sensei, no less. "And what, you'd rather spend time with them than be with me? Are you joking?"

Cue confusion. "What? That's not it. I'm just saying that the reason they're quiet around me is probably because I haven't been able to help with requests. If I start showing up more often, they'd probably—"

"So you want to ditch me so you can hang out with your club buddies?" she asked heatedly. She was facing me now and her expression alone told me that she was angry. Though for the life of me, I couldn't really tell why or where that anger came from. She breathed out loudly. "I'm your girlfriend. If I were your typical high school bimbo, I'd probably dump you on the spot for saying something like this." Her grey eyes were sparkling with anger. I reeled back an inch or two. "Just be thankful that I'm not some teenage slut. I'll let that one slip, but you need to at least _try_ and work on your tact. Jesus Hikigaya."

I stared, dumbfounded at her outburst. Eventually, I shook my head in disbelief. "God. That's not even what I meant. I can spend time with you and still be at club. Why are you getting so damn angry?"

"Why am I getting angry? Because I already told you that you didn't need to go to club anymore, but you're still trying to crawl away like I'm the devil himself or something! Am I really that disgusting that you'd rather spend time with them than with me?" She leaned over to the nightstand and smashed the butt of her cigarette against the ashtray.

I paused, and took a second to look at her features. She looked angry, that was clear, but she also looked slightly hurt—but for what reason I didn't know. Did I fuck up that badly without realizing it? "No. That's not true. I wouldn't rather spend time with Yukinoshita and Yuigahama," I started evenly. "But I do have a duty to show up when I can, and help out with the requests. You were the one who put me up to it in the first place, remember?"

Her scowl remained but her features lost their menacing edge, if only slightly. "Yeah, but things are different now. And I already said that you've outgrown the reason for your being there in the first place," she frowned. "That's a compliment by the way," she added quietly.

Seeing her visibly calm down allowed me to feel more at ease. "Right, thanks," I said. "But even so, _I_ still want to stay in the club. Trust me, this won't take much away from our time together," I continued. "It's just… I have to go sometimes. At least a few times a week so it isn't so awkward when I do finally show up again."

She regarded me for a second, her grey eyes seeming to bore deeply into me, before she sighed out. "I… alright," she said, tearing her gaze from me. It looked like she had wanted to say more, but she simply bit her lip and looked away from me. After we sat there in silence for a while, our elevated emotions slowly dissipating, she spoke again, softer this time. "I'm… sorry. About what I said," she uttered with a wet sigh. "God, I feel like all I do with you is apologize. But I'm sorry."

I watched her for a second before responding. "It's… no big deal. I think I understand now."

A breath flowed from her mouth as she spoke. "Thanks Hikigaya." Her voice was quiet and calm again. She closed her eyes for a brief second and took a breath. When she opened them again, I was rubbing her shoulder soothingly. She smiled softly at me before pulling me in for a wet kiss.

I thought I understood.

* * *

 **AN:** I don't know why I do this to myself or you guys, but once again I wrote the vast majority of this in one night. And it was exhausting. Pardon if there any errors or if it seems rough. I was going to include more in this chapter, but I figured that the next few bits were better left to the next installment. Also, I'm slightly altering the chapter naming scheme for _reasons,_ so if you didn't notice, chapter 1 + 4's names have been changed. Anyways, once again I'm excited to move forward with this story. We're getting to the good stuff.


	6. A Certain Duality

**Chapter 6: A Certain Duality**

A familiar sight. Medium-sized room. Stained carpet. Messy drawers. Hiratsuka-sensei's apartment.

I blinked to lubricate my dry eyes. I heard a soft chuckle somewhere to my right.

"Oh my god. That's insane," the voice laughed quietly.

Muted dialogue and colorful light dancing off the walls around us. A crunching sound and more faint chuckling. "You know what I don't get?" the voice started.

I turned my face slightly and regarded Hiratsuka-sensei with a blink. "What?"

"Why Jonobo never jusht upsh and," she paused slightly to swallow a mouthful of starchy potato chips. She struck her chest with a curled fist, and an oily belch poured from her lips. "Excuse me," she coughed. "I don't understand why Jonobo doesn't just kill Kenshin-sensei," she started. "I mean, honestly. Even from the first episode, you could tell that he was like barely _one_ power level shy of Kenshin's max. And that was at the start!" she exclaimed. "And now that he's got the sword of Akashita, he could take him out easily. You know, one feint mortality strike could probably do the trick." She grabbed another chip out of the bag and proceeded to chew loudly.

It was this conversation again. I supposed there were bound to be repeat discussions when you were marathoning twelve straight seasons of _Metalloid Cruiser_ , but it was starting to grow alarming how often this specific topic came up. "Maybe he doesn't want to kill him because Kenshin's a part of the team?" I said with a raised eyebrow. "Once again, what's with the random hatred for Kenshin-sensei? You act like he personally killed your family or something."

She scoffed and a few bits of chip flew from her mouth. "What's _not_ to hate about that smug douche?" she started with an extended hand. "He's a terrible fighter, he betrayed the entire squad for the tiniest chance of bringing back his dead whore wife, and then he has the _gall_ to beg them for forgiveness afterwards!" she said loudly. "What a dick. He's not even a good teacher, either. He's taught Jonobo one good move, and Jonobo ended up mastering it without his help anyways," she continued.

I shrugged. "I guess you're right. You know what they say about those who can't do," I offered evenly.

I felt a chip bounce off my cheek. "Oh, shut up. The squad would be better off without him and we both know it," she said with an air of finality. I merely shrugged. I had no strong opinion one way or the other.

Several hours and one and a half seasons of battle anime later, Hiratsuka-sensei stood up and walked over to the small black console with a yawn. She fiddled with the controls on the compact disc player, and after a second, a slight hissing noise was heard as the eject button was pressed. "So," she spoke. "Shall we move on to season fourteen, or should we take a short recess first?"

My brain was fried. I blinked tiredly. "Recess," I answered.

Still crouching down, she turned to look at me over her shoulder. "Fine then," she said. "I suppose a short break couldn't hurt."

She made her way into the adjoining bathroom, and shut the door behind her. After a few minutes, she plopped down beside me on the bed again. "What's wrong? You seem out of it today," she asked after a beat.

I shrugged my shoulders automatically. "Nothing. Just a long day at school."

She regarded me with calm eyes for a moment before speaking. "…More club problems?"

I looked at her, then shrugged again. "I guess you could say that."

"I see," she nodded. "My offer still stands you know."

"Yeah, I know," I answered. "Thanks, but I'd rather try to work things out before I do anything too drastic."

"Your call," she said disinterestedly.

We sat in silence for a while. Between the stuff going on with exams, the issues with the club, breathing in the stale apartment air, and the hours upon hours of mind numbing television on a tiny flat screen LCD, I suppose did feel tired. I spoke softly. "Hey," I started absently.

"Hmm?" she said as she flicked at her lighter.

"You want to go out this Saturday?"

Her fingers stilled and she turned her face slightly to regard me. She blew out a plume of smoke before speaking. "Where?"

I shrugged. "I don't know. I didn't have anything specific in mind. Maybe that new coffee shop that opened on Fukawa. Or a movie or something."

She looked at me with a questioning gaze. "What brought this on?"

"Nothing," I said. "There were just some things I wanted to check out downtown and I thought we could go together."

"I see." She blew out another lungful of smoke. "I thought we already talked about this."

"Well, you said restaurants and shopping. Going to a coffee shop or watching a movie is different."

"Marginally," she sighed.

"Students go to coffee shops with their teachers all the time," I began. "And movie auditoriums are dark. Once you're in your seat, you can't see a thing, and neither can the people around you."

"Students and teachers go to coffee shops to work on their essays or to review exam material," she said. "And the movie theater downtown is where all the students from Sobu hang out. I may not be as young as you, but I'm still pretty up to date on the hot spots."

"I could bring my paper along. The poetry analysis one. It's pretty crappy right now."

"I can take a look at it right here."

"We could try the theater in Narashino. Students don't usually go there because it's not really close to any school."

"A couple of my friends live in that district."

"We could walk around the park for a while."

"My legs are usually sore after standing up in class all week. It takes a full weekend for them to recover."

"There's a new—"

I was cut short by a sharp sigh. "Come on Hikigaya. Stop already." I blinked once. "You know as well as I do why doing any of those things would be a bad idea." Her voice wasn't necessarily sharp, but it held a frayed edge to it.

Almost as if waking from a shallow nap, I felt my mind clear a bit and my faculties return to me. I blinked the groggy exhaustion from my eyes as I sat up slightly. "Oh. Yeah, I know. Sorry. I was out of it for a second there." I shook my head again to clear my muddied thoughts. "I get what you mean. They were just…" I paused to find the right word. "suggestions," I shrugged.

She looked at me sympathetically. "Look, I know that our relationship is complicated," she started softly before letting out a breath. "And I do want to be able to go places with you, and eat out, and muck around the streets," she paused. "But you have to know that there's a reason that we can't go around flaunting what we have. A very good reason at that."

I looked at her expectantly even though I knew what she was referring to. "Once you graduate, I promise we'll go on as many dates as you want." She gave a small smile. "But until then, we'll just have to make due with what we've got. I know watching old anime in my room isn't the most exciting thing in the world, but at least we're able to do it together. Am I right?"

I blinked lazily. "I guess."

"Exactly. I mean, why ruin a good thing?"

Maybe good wasn't the best adjective. "I guess," I shrugged as I lazily settled back into the mattress. Hiratsuka-sensei clicked something on the remote before putting out her cigarette on the nightstand ashtray.

The TV let out a staticky noise before the select menu for season fourteen of _Metalloid Cruiser_ popped up on the small television screen.

She laughed when Kenshin-sensei had his life force drained by the dark witch doctor Akenmaru.

* * *

I winced at the sharp pain. _Come on, you've dealt with worse. This is just a flesh wound compared to OW OW OW!_

I clenched my teeth as the stinging alcohol washed over the jagged lacerations on my knee. Another night ride home, another careless bicycle accident. I set the clear bottle on the kitchen counter as I applied pressure to the wound.

Was I really that tired? So tired I couldn't even steer straight?

I supposed that watching hours of television did tend to numb one's mind a bit, but I didn't think I was _that_ out of it. Who knew that doing literally nothing could make somebody feel so damn drained afterwards?

It was somewhat odd, the routine that Hiratsuka-sensei and I had fallen into recently. There would be some days where we couldn't even wait to get to her apartment and would tear into each other the very second we were alone (more often than not her car on some deserted street served as the backdrop). But then again, for every passionate, lust-fueled day, there would also be a day where we would laze around for hours and power through her old anime box sets while gorging on crappy, processed foods. Like had been the case today, it always left me feeling remarkably exhausted after. Interestingly enough, maybe even more tired than the days where we would spend hours in her apartment just having sex.

But that was beside the point. The point was that our relationship seemed to be marked by extremes. It was either pure, unbridled passion—be it in the form of sex, or more frequently, bouts of barely restrained anger and hostility, or it was us lazing around in a small, dark room numbing our minds with old television programming while barely even speaking to each other. It was one or the other.

Hiratsuka-sensei never did quite strike me as a particularly moderate person, but wasn't there middle ground to be found somewhere? Couldn't we maybe spend some time together outside the confines of school or her dark musty room? Wasn't there more to a relationship than having sex and silently wasting time together? That wasn't a rhetorical question. In my inexperience, I really didn't know.

Though, there was the whole 'inappropriate' relationship angle to consider too. What Hiratsuka-sensei had said earlier was technically correct. There was a big chance of getting spotted while we spent time together in public places. That would undoubtedly invite a host of unwanted, and in our case, even fatal questions. Well, fatal enough to put an end to whatever it was we had, to be more specific.

All of that was true, but I couldn't help but think that if we _really_ wanted to, couldn't we find _anywhere_ we could go where there would be absolutely no chance for someone to see us? It certainly didn't have to be anywhere fancy. I would be content simply going to an arcade or something with her. Something stupid like that. Weren't guys supposed to take their girlfriends out to places?

Then again, it sounded odd to refer to Hiratsuka-sensei as my girlfriend. I suppose that for all intents and purposes, that was what she was, but it still didn't roll off my tongue the way I wanted it to. It was a little bit surreal how many hours of my youth I wasted running through scenarios in my head on what I would do with my girlfriend if I finally managed to get one. However, funnily enough, none of those scenarios ever quite played out like the reality that I found myself in now. I couldn't decide which was better and which was worse.

I shrugged unconsciously. I don't know though. Maybe Hiratsuka-sensei just didn't want to be seen with me in public? Perhaps she really did think that staying in to watch Metalloid Cruiser four nights in a row was fun. I honestly couldn't say. And that bothered me more than I cared to admit. I thought that by entering a relationship with her, I would be able to understand her better. After all, wasn't that the point of a relationship in the first place? To get to know someone better? I thought that I would be able to, but as had been proven time and time again, that just wasn't the case; I was just as clueless as before, if not even more so. Perhaps I was wrong to think that I could ever even hope to understand women.

I was dabbing absently at the wound on my knee when I heard the familiar sound of an opening door. With a quiet creak and the sound of hissing air, the door came shut with a whisper.

"Huh?" a voice asked quietly in the distance. A familiar face peeked in through the frame of the living room entrance and blinked a few times as it regarded me. Judging from the voice alone, I could tell that it was Komachi.

"Oh. It's you Onii-chan," she said with a slight tilt of her head. "I was wondering why the lights were on. I thought mom and dad passed out on the couch again."

Her tilted head and surprised expression reminded me of someone else.

"Nope. Just me unfortunately," I answered.

She nodded absently. "Yeah. That really is unfortunate…"she said as she made her way over to the fridge.

"Gee, thanks."

"No prob Onii-chan. That's what Komachi's here for." She laughed quietly as she pulled out a carton of milk and a box of cereal. After pouring both into a ceramic bowl and slicing a small banana into it, she joined me at the counter.

I eyed her with a raised eyebrow. "Cereal at this time of night? Is that healthy?"

She scoffed indignantly in that cute, pouty manner of hers. "Oh, give me a break. I haven't eaten anything since dinner."

I blinked. Oh right, it _was_ pretty late. Speaking of which… "Right. So where have you been all night? Isn't it a little late for you to just be coming home now?"

She looked at me out of the corner of her eye and squinted slightly. "That's a rather funny thing for _you_ to say. I think this is the first time this week that you've come home earlier than I have." She scooped a spoonful of cereal into her mouth. I tensed.

She was right. I had come home rather late every night this week, and the only times I had really seen Komachi were when I barged into her room to wake her up for school in the mornings. "Uh, what do you mean by that?"

"Come on, my test scores might not be as high as yours were, but I'm not dumb," she said with a slurp. " _Normally_ you would be home around three in the afternoon, but Komachi's noticed that you don't get home until the wee hours of the night nowadays. Very suspicious." She eyed me with a crooked glance. "So, have you finally gotten a girlfriend Onii-chan? Is that what all this sneaking around is about?"

"Uh…"

"Because if it is, then you have Komachi's wholehearted forgiveness!"

I swallowed. "No, it's not necessarily—"

"Is it Yui-chan? Ooh, it's Yukino-chan isn't it? I always knew you had a thing for her. Good job Onii-chan! Komachi approves either way!"

I raised my hands. "Nah, it's really nothing like that," I interrupted in a more direct tone. And it wasn't, really. "I've just been busy with some stuff."

I cringed at my overly vague language, but I couldn't think of anything that would reliably excuse my recent tardiness, so I tried my best to brush it off. I couldn't tell if she bought it or not. "Yeah, Komachi's not buying it," she said haughtily. Figured. "You're not a very good liar you know."

"I didn't even lie…"

"Oh well," she shrugged. "You don't have to tell if you don't want to."

I paused to look at my normally nosy sister. "Really?"

"Sure. As long as Onii-chan is satisfied with his love affair then so is Komachi. Onii-chan's happiness is my number one priority after all," she said with a raised spoon. I sighed in relief. "Oh! That right there just scored the Komachi point jackpot!"

I rolled my eyes affectionately. Still as lame as ever. "Right, but jackpots are usually won at random you realize."

She paused for a second to think. "Hmm, compliments paid to Onii-chan are so far and few in between that when one does happen, it's essentially like a stroke of fate isn't it?" she asked cheekily.

I shook my head. "Just eat your cereal," I said as I wiped at my bleeding knee with a piece of torn gauze.

Komachi who was chewing through a grin, paused when she looked over at me. "What happened?"

"I cut my knee falling off my bike. It's no big deal."

"You're bleeding all over the place Onii-chan…"

"Huh? Oh, it's really not that bad. I took care of most of the blood. I just need to wait for it to finish disinfecting before I wrap it up."

She looked unsure but nodded. "Okay…"

When enough time had passed, I gingerly placed the bandage pad on my knee, only wincing slightly as the adhesive bonded to my skin. After a sigh, I turned to address Komachi, suddenly remembering that she had never given me an answer to my previous question. "So, where have you been all night?"

She looked at me for a second, before saying, "I was at the mall with my boyfriend."

I almost knocked the bottle of rubbing alcohol off the counter in my surprise. "Boyfriend?" I asked with slightly wide eyes.

"Yup. You know him I think," she said with a slight tap of her finger against her chin. "You met him a while ago when you were working on the case with his nee-san. Does Kawasaki Taishi ring any bells?"

I took a moment to collect my scattered thoughts. Komachi had a boyfriend..? I suppose that did explain why she had been gone so often in the past few weeks. And the name she mentioned did ring a bell. And if by bell, she meant a gong, then yes, that gong was clanging loudly, like a red alert warning in my head. "You mean that little insect that kept calling me Onii-chan?"

"That's the one."

I eyed her with a frown. "Aren't you a little young to have a boyfriend?"

She returned the gesture, and added a furrowing of her brow. "Onii-chan, just because you're undesirable and you didn't have a girlfriend when you were my age, that doesn't mean that I'm too young."

I regarded her for a second. "Fair point," I shrugged.

"Besides, it isn't like we're serious or anything," she said between a mouthful of cereal. "All we do is hang out and stuff. I let him buy me snacks and clothes and things, but we don't do much other than that really."

I struggled to hold back my sigh of relief. "Oh," I said. After a moment I asked, "If that's the case then why do you call him your boyfriend?"

She paused for a moment, as if to collect her thoughts. "I don't know," she shrugged. "He insists on it. He says he likes how it sounds."

Her seeming indifference to the whole situation caught me slightly off guard. Was my little sister really so jaded that she could brush off relationship stuff so casually? "I hope you don't have any intention of going too fast or anything. Despite what you might think, you're still pretty young," I added before pausing. "You're not planning on moving things forward, are you?" I felt slightly uncomfortable talking to my dear little Komachi-chan about things like this, but a pang of curiosity drove me to press on.

She chuckled lightly. "Eh, no. Probably not," she answered candidly. "I like Taishi-kun, but just as a friend."

I regarded her for a second as I stared at my freshly bandaged knee. "Isn't that…" I began quietly. "Isn't that kind of leading him on?"

She blinked. "Hmm," she hummed to herself before chuckling. "Not really. We're just both benefitting from a good situation. Komachi gets her clothes and trinkets, and Taishi gets a beautiful girlfriend to hang off his arm for a while!" Her 'cute' voice had made a sudden return.

I didn't answer her immediately, and elected to just keep staring at the stain on my rolled up pants. I thought for a second that Komachi seemed unnecessarily flippant and cold about the whole situation. Was that really how she felt about this type of thing..? "You kind of sound like a predator," I said half-jokingly.

"A predator?" she repeated thoughtfully. She laughed. "Be more mature Onii-chan. That's just how these things work these days."

I nodded slightly. We sat in silence for a while, me gazing absently at some spot on the floor, and Komachi chewing her cereal with her phone in hand. After a few minutes, I stood up on shaky knees. I winced slightly, but didn't let the pain show on my face. "Well, I'm gonna go to sleep. Make sure to turn off the lights when you're done," I told her.

"Yeah yeah Onii-chan," she said dismissively. "Good night."

"Yeah. Night," I answered as I rounded the corner.

However, before I had a chance to completely climb the stairs, I heard a voice call out through the darkness. "And Onii-chan?" it asked.

I paused where I was standing. "Yeah?"

"You should take a shower. You smell like smoke. It stinks."

I frowned, and didn't answer.

After retreating to my room, my eyes fell into their usual pattern of staring idly up at my dark ceiling. _Poor sucker_ , I thought sullenly. I didn't know who I was referring to.

Although I was tired out of my mind, it was hard to find sleep.

* * *

"How many times have you seen this?" I asked after a long stretch of silence.

Hiratsuka-sensei eyed me with a curious glance. "Dunno. I've lost track," she answered, turning her attention back to the brightly lit screen in front of her.

The animated, dancing figures on the screen twirled about and spouted out profanities as they did so. She chuckled lightly when one of the main characters slapped the other for being a pervert.

"Hey," I said after a while of silence. I could feel myself losing brain cells after staring at the television for so long. I felt that if I didn't say something, I might've gone crazy right then and there.

"Hmm?" she hummed absently, her eyes still on the screen.

"How was your day?"

"About as good as any other day."

"Oh." I said, turning my eyes back to the screen. "Wanna hear about mine?" I asked after a beat.

"I'm trying to watch here. Tell me later."

I sucked on my lip before tapping absently on my knee.

"Could you not?"

I stopped.

* * *

"I can't just keep blowing them off like this," I said evenly. "I told them before that I'd show up more often."

Hiratsuka-sensei let out a breath through her nose. In her dark apartment bedroom, it was hard to see much, but I could tell that her features held a vaguely annoyed expression. "And I told you not to worry about it. You'll show up when you have free time."

"It doesn't seem like I have a lot of that these days," I replied.

"Well, you didn't think that being in a committed, _adult_ relationship would be a cakewalk, did you?" she asked with a snort. "Obviously you're not going to have all the time in the world to sit around and chit chat around with your friends. I have needs that need to be met."

I was lying on my back and my eyes were staring up at the ceiling. "Still," I shrugged. "Like I told _you,_ I need to go at least a few times if only to keep up appearances."

She regarded me for a cold second before speaking again. "Whatever," she muttered under her breath. "Do what you want." She flicked at her lighter.

We'd had this conversation so many times before that our bickering almost felt scripted. I felt exasperation, but it wasn't the kind I had initially felt when this topic was first breached. It was dulled and less explosive, but there all the same.

"You're not jealous are you?" I asked impulsively. My voice came out shakier than I was expecting.

She looked at me incredulously. "Jealous? Of who, Yukinoshita?"

I shrugged my shoulders. "Or Yuigahama," I said.

Her eyebrows knit together. "Jealous of those two? Please," she started with a derisive snort. "I know your type Hikigaya. You like smart, sophisticated, elegant women," she said as if checking off a list. "That's why you're with me."

She certainly did hold a high opinion of herself. But I knew that already. "So you're not jealous then," I continued.

Her offended expression deepened. "Do I have a reason to be?" she asked, her voice sounding oddly restrained.

"No."

"Good."

"So then what's the problem with me attending club?"

She paused slightly and turned to look at me through messy bangs. "Nothing. Go right on ahead." She gripped a handful of covers before turning to her side. "It's late. You should get going. It's a school night and all that."

I regarded her prone form for a second before I slipped my shirt on over my head and stood. "Right. I'll see you tomorrow then."

She snorted. I didn't end up going to club that next day, much to her relief.

The days slipped by quickly, night turning to day, then day into night. I went to school, often stopped by Hiratsuka-sensei's apartment afterwards, and then would bike home tiredly after a few hours of doing the few things we were limited to doing there, there.

On a few occasions at school, Yuigahama would come up to my desk and ask me if I was going to club that day, and I would answer in the negative every time. I felt slightly guilty for rejecting her so many times when I'd told her not too long ago that I'd make more conscious of an effort to turn up, but if it bothered her, she didn't show it. She simply said okay, shrugged, and then set off by herself.

Hiratsuka-sensei and I would either have sex or laze around doing whatever in the evenings. The topic of me going to club came up once or twice, but we never really saw eye to eye on it as was to be expected. As far as she was concerned, I had outgrown it, and as far as I was concerned, I didn't really feel like getting into another argument about it. In the back of my mind, I still did want to show up to club out of what was a sense of duty, or responsibility, or camaraderie, or _something_ , but I never did.

Our routine became predictable. But it didn't stay that way for long.

* * *

 **AN:** I had some issues writing this chapter and just with the flow of the rest of the story in general. But this chapter is of the bridging variety, which might explain why not all that much happens. I apologize for nothing. Anyways, I had a very specific purpose in mind while writing this, and whether or not I succeeded in what I was trying to do is for you to decide once you read the next chapter. Until then, thanks for checking the story out and leave a review if you hated it. And even one if you liked it.


	7. The Further One Strays

**Chapter 7: The Further One Strays**

"That'll be all for today class. Remember, I want those first drafts in by Friday. Dismissed."

Hiratsuka-sensei's voice was firm like it always was when used to address the class. Upon hearing her words of dismissal, the students of 2F began to filter out through the doors for lunch break. Before standing up, Hiratsuka-sensei packed away some loose papers and other school-related items into her bag.

I was doing the same when I heard a voice from the front of the room address me.

"Hikigaya. See me in my office please." She looked at me neutrally, but I saw the edges of her lips curl up conspiratorially for the briefest of seconds.

I offered a lazy smile, and nodded.

A few moments after that, she left the room, the swishing sound of a fluttering lab coat signaling her departure. I turned my attention back to the menial task of packing book into bag when I heard a conversation drift in my direction from the center of the room.

"Oh, and can ya tell miss Yukino that I appreciate her help too? I know I already said it, but without you guys I woulda been screwed. No doubt about it."

Sparing a quick glance in the direction of the noise, I noticed that a couple of members of the class's resident in-crowd hadn't yet left for lunch and were instead loitering around the middle of the room, bags still unpacked. Judging from the horrible butchering of the Japanese language alone, I deduced that the one who had just spoken was Tobe.

"Noo, it really wasn't a big deal, you know? There's no need to thank us so much…"

I recognized that voice as Yuigahama's.

"Nah, Yui-san, I mean it. My ass was on the line back there, but you guys really managed to pull through for me. I mean it genuinely when I say it, so thank ya. To you and miss Yukino both."

"Aww that's sweet. Okay, I'll tell her. Thank you Tobe."

"Yeah. Yeah, it's the least I could do," Tobe said brightly. He laughed in that stereotypical, overly friendly way before saying, "But really though! The service club is like some amazing thing, right? It's like a godsend. Free and it gets the job done. It's good stuff."

My hands that were idly packing away pencils and pens slowed a fraction.

"Haha, that's what the club is for. It's kind of like our jobs I guess. We don't mind," she laughed.

Once all of my supplies were in my bag, I stood up and flung it around my shoulder. The chair made a slightly sharp noise as it scraped against the floor. I winced, but didn't slow my step as I took careful steps outside the room. I could feel a pair of eyes on my back as I walked, but that didn't slow me down.

As I turned the corner, I heard those same voices whisper something.

" _Say, how come Hikitani wasn't there to help me out? Did he quit club or somethin?"_

" _Oh. Umm... I'm not sure. He-"_

I was already in the hallway before I could hear the end of that last sentence.

The stroll to Hiratsuka-sensei's office ended up being brief and straightforward. It was a path that I'd had memorized for some time.

* * *

"I have a meeting tomorrow," Hiratsuka-sensei said, her voice drifting from the kitchen. "It'll probably go on to the evening, so you should probably head straight home after school."

I raised my head slightly from my folded position on the couch of her apartment living room. "Oh. Sure." I nodded. After a beat I asked, "What kind of meeting is it?"

She grabbed a can of yebisu malt from the fridge, and closed it with the edge of her hip. "Oh, you know. The same old, same old," she said uninterestedly. The top of the can cracked with a hiss and she took a large sip before sighing out in satisfaction. After wiping her lips with the sleeve of her shirt, she continued.

"The email said we were going to discuss final preparatory lessons for the third years before the uni exams come up. I think principal Katsuoro said something about setting up after school cram sessions for any students who need help or something."

She took a long sip from her can before tossing it and opening the fridge for another. "I mean, it's more work for me and the other teachers but since he doesn't have to do squat, what does it matter right?"

I blinked when I realized that she was expecting an answer. "Sounds like a shitty situation," I offered offhandedly.

"Oh believe me, it is." She plopped down on the couch beside me with another open beer in her hands. "So, what's happened in my absence?"

"Nothing much," I shrugged. "Kenshin-sensei betrayed the team again and Jonobo killed him." I tried my hardest to keep the boredom out of my voice. At least the change in scenery from her bedroom to living room was nice, even if we were still stuck watching this damn anime. At the very least this room didn't seem as… stifling.

"Yes! Finally! Twenty-three seasons too late if you ask me," she exclaimed with a satisfied grin on her face.

I raised a lazy eyebrow. "What's with the excitement…" I started. "I thought you said you've already seen this series before."

"I have," she shrugged. "But that doesn't make that bastard's death any less exciting when it happens."

I turned my attention back to the bright colors on the screen.

We sat, both watching the TV monitor for a while, until Hiratsuka-sensei lightly poked my side and said something.

"Huh?" I asked, snapping out of a slight daze.

"I said," she began with an impatient look on her face. "That I was thinking that maybe you were right."

I blinked once, not knowing quite what she was referring to. "…About?" I asked.

"That we should go on a date," she said with a small smile. I looked into her grey eyes. "I know that it could possibly be risky or lead to a complicated situation or whatever, but," she said. "What we have going on is already a pretty complicated situation. I suppose playing it by ear for once wouldn't be too bad."

Despite myself, I felt my heart beat slightly faster. "Uh, yeah. Cool," I started lamely, trying to play off my sudden excitement. After a month of living like hermits, we could finally do something together in public…? I cleared my throat and sat up a bit straighter. "How's this Saturday? Where do you want to go?" My overeager tone might have sounded pathetic to someone listening in, but I didn't pay much mind to it.

"Hey, slow down there," she said, her smile almost immediately losing a bit of its previous mirth. "I didn't mean this weekend or anything."

I blinked, confused. "Oh," I said. "Next Saturday then?"

She sat up a bit straighter. "Mmm, I was thinking some time later," she said with a hum. "You know, somewhere down the line…" she trailed off.

I felt the feeling of hopefulness evaporate. "I see."

She must've sensed something change in my tone because she added, "But soon Hikigaya. Soon."

I didn't know if she was just saying it to placate me, or if she actually meant it, but I saw no point in arguing or drawing out the issue further.

…I supposed I could live with waiting just a while longer. I nodded, and settled back into the plush cushions of the couch. As I did, I remembered something else that I wanted to address.

"Er, so you're going to be gone all afternoon tomorrow right?" I asked.

"Mmm. Yep," she said absently as she took another sip of her beer.

"Ah, alright," I said. "I think I'll stop by club for a bit then. The others probably think I'm dead or something by now." Despite how careful I was trying to make my words sound, they came out quickly.

She paused for a second, can hovering above her lips, before taking a sip. "You see Yuigahama every day in class, don't you?"

"Well yeah, but I was being sort of facetious about that last part."

A short silence fell over us before she spoke again. "I suppose you're right."

I immediately felt a slight surprise at her words. I turned towards her to regard her expression. It wasn't happy, but it wasn't angry like I had come to expect when this particular topic came up. "Really?"

"Hmm, yes," she started. "I know I haven't exactly been ushering you to the clubroom or anything but…" Her face took a slightly thoughtful expression as she spoke. "It's… _wrong_ of me to stand in your way," she said, choosing her words carefully. She took another long sip from her beer. "It's your life, and ultimately your decision."

"O-Oh. Yeah," I said lamely.

She sighed with a small smile. "I'm the one who initially signed you up in the first place – you've certainly done well to remind me of that – and you're right. You should go tomorrow," she said. After she shook her head briefly, she added, "You really are more responsible than I give you credit for, you know." She nudged me in the rib with an elbow.

I felt a small smile tug at my lips at her closing comment. "Yeah, I'm actually an upstanding citizen, I swear."

"Now _that_ might be pushing it one step too far…" she said amusedly. I laughed, and the mood lightened.

"So… I'll stop by club tomorrow after school then."

"Okay. Just don't stay too long."

I leaned back into the couch and draped my arm lazily over Hiratsuka-sensei's shoulder. I waited a second, perhaps expecting a rebuff, but was met with none. Instead, she leaned her head down slightly to rest on my chest. I tensed a little, but before long, relaxed enough to place an arm over the small of her back.

It wasn't often that we did this sort of thing – the whole cute, physical contact type deal. Though that's not to say that we weren't a physical couple, because that wasn't strictly true either. I gathered from our time together that Hiratsuka-sensei was definitely a physical person, maybe even egregiously so. However, it just didn't seem to extend to realms outside of the bedroom. The whole hand holding, cuddling thing just wasn't for her, and I was… okay with that. I suppose I had never been much of a touchy person myself so it wasn't a deal breaker for me.

But still, even when we were in the privacy of her apartment, it wasn't often that she would initiate any small, physical contact aside from a brief pat on the shoulder, or more rarely a peck on the lips. The only time we went beyond that was when we were engaging in less polite activities.

She was a do or die type of woman, and I liked that about her. But in that moment, with my arm around her shoulder, and the fresh scent of her balmy shampoo drifting into my nostrils, I felt content for what had felt like the first time in a while. I sighed.

"You… would never hurt me, would you?"

My arm that was absently rubbing her side, stilled suddenly. I looked down at her face confusedly, wondering if I correctly heard what she had whispered. "Er, what?"

"That day at the festival, you told me that you'd never leave me," she said softly. Although the sounds of the television were in fact loud, I could hardly hear them, my ears instead focused on Hiratsuka-sensei's soft words. "It sounded like you meant it too."

Did I say that? When…

My brain entered a flurry of activity as it tried to recall the exact words that had been said that night. I vaguely remembered saying something along those lines, but the exact context was unclear. And not only that, but that whole night was sort of a blur to me at this point, it having been weeks ago, and having ended like it did. I didn't mean to come off as insensitive or anything, I really didn't, but it just didn't exactly sound like something I would say. At a loss for words, I simply kept my awkward silence.

" _Did_ you mean it?" she whispered so softly I could barely hear it.

I paused. "Yes," I answered in spite of myself. I felt her arm wrap tighter around my own and although I couldn't see her face, I could practically _feel_ a small smile emerge on it.

"Thank you Hikigaya." Her voice was still soft. "I know that I might not be the easiest person to get along with, but… I'm glad you're here. With me."

I bristled at her honesty. "Yeah. Me too."

We both laid there on her plush couch for a while, watching the moving images on and cartoonish sounds on the television, but not really paying them much attention. Once again, it was Hiratsuka-sensei who shattered that uneasy quiet.

"Don't stay too long at club tomorrow okay?" Her voice was soft, but held the faintest hint of some emotion. …Urgency? It was hard to tell.

"Yeah…" I started. "I won't. Just long enough to greet them and read for a little bit, and then I'll head home."

"Okay. Good," she sighed. "I'm… going to ask Katsuoro if I can leave the meeting early tomorrow. I can't skip it, but I'll try to come back early alright?" she asked, this time her face leaning up slightly to look at mine. "Maybe we can… do something fun," she said with a small smile. Whether that meant what I hoped it meant, or something else, I wasn't completely sure.

"Sounds good to me," I answered, relaxing a bit. "Just text me when you get back."

She nodded, and snuggled further into me. I held her, and although that feeling of contentedness from before wasn't as strong this time, it was definitely still there. Somewhere.

* * *

As I had done so many times before, I paused in front of the clubroom's wooden door, my hand hovering slightly above the handle.

It had been weeks since I had shown up to club – for afterschool meetings, or otherwise. Sure I had seen Yuigahama in class every day, but we hadn't really said much to each other in the mean time barring the occasional, expected greeting.

It wasn't me being cruel, and it certainly wasn't Yuigahama being cruel, but with club being the only real concrete thing tying us together, it wasn't surprising that we didn't have many opportunities to talk. That was just the way things went. She was busy with her life, the service club, and whatever else, and I was busy with my own life and my own issues.

It was nobody's fault that we had drifted apart in the last month, but… as I stood there in the empty hallway, I couldn't help but feel a tinge of nervousness anyways.

The other side of the coin, Yukinoshita, was of course, another thing to consider. We weren't in the same class, so I had seen her even less. Far less actually. I thought I saw her walking briskly through the school parking lot once when Yuigahama had been signed out early, but that could have been my imagination. And even if it weren't, the fact was that for a while now, we hadn't seen each other or even had a chance to exchange pleasantries. I didn't quite know how to feel about that.

I sighed, minding to stay quiet in case they might hear. After all, I could easily hear their animated talking and laughing through the wooden door; it wasn't a stretch to think that they could do the same.

I reached to grasp at the handle, but once again, I paused.

Was it rude of me to barge in on them after not showing up for so long? What would they think? Would they even care? Do they even care? Why do I care?

 _And why do I feel like I'm setting myself up for disappointment here?_

I shook my head in a final attempt to clear my thoughts. With one last, large breath, I opened the panels and slid the door open.

Upon coming in, the voices that were previously echoing off the walls ceased. Yuigahama and Yukinoshita looked at me with surprised expressions on their faces.

"Yo," I said as I stood at the cusp of the door.

I made no motion to sit in my seat. Unlike the last time I had been here – nearly a month ago – I felt no strong desire to immediately walk over to the chair and sit down. It wasn't a given anymore.

"Oh. Uh, hi Hikki," Yuigahama said with an awkward smile. Her normally bubbly voice held an expected hint of surprise, but there was something else hidden in her tone and features.

"Hello Hikigaya-kun."

Yukinoshita was the second to offer a greeting. Her voice didn't at all sound strained, but nor did it sound welcoming or even sarcastic. It was simply neutral.

I took in a short breath. "Yeah, hi," I said quietly. I tried to force a small smile, but I was sure it ended up looking rotten the second it reached my lips. I took a breath before sighing out. _Might as well get this over with…_

"Uh, yeah. I don't really have a good excuse or anything, but I'm sorry I haven't been attending the club meetings," I said. Even I was beginning to grow tired of my half-assed apologies.

If either of them had heard me, neither made a move to indicate it. Instead, they just sat still and stared at me with seemingly vacant eyes.

"So...uh. I apologize for my absence," I tacked on lamely.

I bowed my head slightly in a show of respect, hoping they would go easy on me. Yuigahama, I was sure wouldn't hold any ill will, but I wouldn't have been surprised if Yukinoshita immediately launched into an attack on my character at the first hint of weakness I displayed. None came, however.

"I see. It's… nothing to concern yourself over."

"Um, yeah don't worry about it Hikki."

I blinked, surprised that my absence and apology had gone over so well. If anything, they didn't seem to be particularly concerned by it at all.

"Oh. Okay, thanks," I said, absently rubbing at the back of my neck. "Sorry again."

"Like I said, it's fine."

I wanted to sigh, but I found myself not actually feeling all that relieved for some reason.

After awkwardly standing in front of the door for a moment, I realized that I still hadn't taken a seat yet. I turned my eyes to my normal spot… and like last time, no chair occupied the space.

"D-Do you mind if I grab a chair?" The stutter came out of nowhere.

With a lazy blink, Yukinoshita answered. "Help yourself."

"Okay… Thanks."

After setting up the folding chair in what used to be my usual spot, I pulled a book from my bag and attempted to pick up from where I had left off last, but like before, I ended up with little to show for my efforts as my mind simply refused to focus on the printed text.

Not many words were exchanged in the course of the meeting. The absence of conversation didn't necessarily mean that a situation was automatically awkward, but suffice to say, this silence wasn't a comfortable one by any means. I had a nagging suspicion that the person responsible for that was not amongst the two people sitting to my left.

Though if any of us felt uncomfortable, none said anything to show it. I sighed, and let the slow passage of time have its way with me. Pages were flipped, but no information was absorbed.

Eventually, when the silent atmosphere in the room threatened to suffocate me with every breath I took, I flipped my wrist over suddenly.

Upon checking my wristwatch and seeing that a fair amount of time had passed, I decided that I would leave. Although I might have tried to justify it by saying that I _had_ promised Hiratsuka-sensei that I wouldn't stay too long, I knew that that was an excuse. That wasn't the reason that I had chosen to leave early.

Yukinoshita and Yuigahama nodded. Their farewells were clipped, as was mine.

As the creaky paneled doors of the clubroom closed shut, I let out a sigh that I hadn't even known I was holding before filling my lungs with a deep breath. As horribly depressing and overdramatic as it sounded to say, that breath was the first comfortable one I'd had since I had first entered the room. I sighed out again as I made my way through the halls and then to the school bike racks.

It wasn't long before I found myself pedaling down the streets of Chiba, my mind feeling heavy. As I stopped at an intersection, I remembered something.

 _Oh yeah… Hiratsuka-sensei wanted me to come over later._

Her apartment was pretty far from my house, so it honestly wouldn't make all that much sense if I biked all the way home, then had to bike all the way back. Her apartment was relatively close to the school, so I'd be better off sticking around somewhere in the area, killing some time, and then heading over there once I was told to do so. That was the most logical choice, and would certainly be the smartest thing to do.

Something in me twisted, and I continued pedaling towards my house after mounting my bicycle.

 _Honestly, if I showed up to her apartment in the mood I'm in right now, we'd probably just end up fighting again. I'll… text her later. Yeah. I'll tell her that I was tired, and that I wasn't feeling up to it. She'll understand…_

Upon entering the front door, I saw a note taped to the fridge, the girlish, fancy script indicating that it had most likely been left by Komachi. Upon picking it up, I saw that it simply read:

' _Out. Be back sometime later. Don't wait up Onii-chan ;)~'_

I tore it up, and deposited the pieces in the trash bin before making my way upstairs and plopping myself onto my springy mattress. Not even bothering to strip off my school uniform, I laid in bed, an idle eye turned towards a familiar white ceiling.

"And even if she doesn't..." I whispered to myself.

With a frustrated sigh, I settled into the cool sheets, allowing the shadowy sinews of sleep to whisk me from my waking life.

* * *

 _Ahh that really hurts…_ I rubbed my fingers back and forth over my sore neck as I walked through the hallways of Sobu's main building.

Although I had collapsed immediately after coming home last night and had slept for much longer than I normally did, I still ended up incredibly tired this morning.

The reason why wasn't surprising. Simply put, the sleep that I'd had last night hadn't been a good one at all. I ended up tossing and turning for a while before I finally succumbed to exhaustion, and when I did finally fall asleep, I was so restless that I couldn't keep my eyes closed for more than a few minutes at a time before waking up in a hazy state. And as if that weren't bad enough, I had also been woken up multiple times by a shrill, pinging ringtone that clearly came from my cellphone.

I ended up covering my head with a pillow when it wouldn't stop going off (and it was persistent) and didn't bother to spare it a second glance, but call it instinct or what have you, but I had immediately known that it was Hiratsuka-sensei calling to ask about my absence. After all, I _had_ told her that I would join her later.

Upon checking my missed notifications this morning, my suspicions were confirmed. Eleven missed calls and nineteen texts were registered in my call logs, most of them reading something along the lines of 'Where are you?' 'Where the hell are you?' 'WHERE THE HELL ARE YOU?' and 'I'LL KILL YOU IF YOU DON'T ANSWER THE PHONE RIGHT NOW'.

They only started petering out after eleven.

Perhaps were the situation different, I might've been tempted to call Hiratsuka-sensei 'clingy' or 'possessive' or possibly even 'batshit crazy', but I couldn't do so in good conscience because it really was my fault after all. Any moral high ground I might've held was forfeited with my actions last night. I sighed as I threaded through the rapidly diminishing crowd of students.

It really was a crappy thing for me to do, ditching her and not even responding or offering her any avenues of communication afterwards. I knew I had screwed up, but when morning came around, I didn't end up calling her or replying to any of her texts. It wasn't out of spite or anything. I just felt that apologizing over the phone rather than face-to-face would probably just make her even angrier, so I elected to wait until later.

I hadn't had a chance to explain myself during class, or lunch, her having given me the cold shoulder all day, so I decided that I would visit her in her office afterschool and make a big deal out of begging for clemency. She struck me as the type of person who would enjoy spectacles, so I ended up buying her a box of chocolates from a nearby drug store during lunch break as well.

I decided to take the longer route to Hiratsuka-sensei's office, musing that it might give me more time to word my apology in a way that wouldn't spur Hiratsuka-sensei to smack me over the head. As I walked through that nearly deserted hallway, my hands tucked deep into my pockets, I wondered to myself if we were the most dysfunctional couple in the world.

When I finally neared the entrance to her office, I heard voices – two familiar ones.

Slowing my pace, I instinctively leaned against the side of the wall, out of view.

"-have been doing fine. Thank you for asking."

"I see. Well, what can I do for you?"

I blinked as those voices registered in my mind. That last one was unmistakably Hiratsuka-sensei's, and the first voice had to have been Yukinoshita's. Even without directly seeing her, it was hard to mistake that distinctly intelligent cadence of speech.

Judging from the tone of the conversation, it seemed as if I had caught the two just as they were exchanging pleasantries. Not wanting to interrupt them, I stood around the corner and continued listening in as I leaned my shoulder against the wall.

"Well. Erm…" Uncharacteristically, Yukinoshita trailed off before completely finishing her thought. I noticed a vague uneasiness present in her tone that I normally didn't associate with her otherwise cool voice. She cleared her throat softly before continuing. "There are some issues regarding the Service Club that I would like to discuss with you."

I could practically _hear_ Hiratsuka-sensei's eyebrow rise in response to Yukinoshita's statement. "Oh. Is that so," she spoke, her voice even. After a brief pause she asked, "Is there a problem?"

Yukinoshita didn't answer the question immediately, instead choosing to sigh slightly. I could imagine her wrapping her arms around herself like she did when she began to feel awkward which, admittedly, wasn't all that often. Still, whatever it was that she was looking to bring up, clearly it was something important and from what she'd said, apparently it had to do with club.

My interest was piqued as well.

"Yes, I believe so," she started, her voice once again coldly calm and collected. I heard someone take a quiet breath.

"Simply put, I believe that Hikigaya-kun should be removed from active duty within the Service Club."

I felt my eyes widen and my body freeze up immediately as I heard those words pour from Yukinoshita's mouth. _Huh?_

She… she wanted to remove me from the club…?

While I would be a fool to say that the last few meetings I'd attended had gone swimmingly, I didn't think that the other two felt so strongly about it that they were willing to do something so…extreme. Was my behavior really that intolerable that Yukinoshita wanted me out?

Despite myself, I felt a dull sensation in my chest. A person that I had thought I got along decently with was essentially dismissing me like yesterday's garbage—and doing so behind my back to top it all off.

Hiratsuka-sensei must've felt similarly because she asked, "Come again?"

I heard someone take a small intake of air. "Hikigaya-kun showed up to club yesterday. It was the first time he had done so in over three weeks."

"Uh huh…" Hiratsuka-sensei nodded and didn't say anything else, as if prompting for the other girl to continue.

"I had assumed – perhaps unfairly – that he had quit the club since he wasn't showing up to the meetings for weeks at a time. However, I was proven wrong by his unexpected presence in the clubroom yesterday afternoon."

 _Quit three weeks ago_ … What? That wasn't it at all. I had just been busy and had had a lot on my plate. Despite my previous posturing when I had first joined, I never did truly want to flat out _quit_ the Service Club. I thought Yukinoshita had at least understood enough about me to know that I wouldn't just quit with so much blasé. That I wasn't the type of person who would do that…

Yukinoshita breathed out. "It seems that Hikigaya-kun no longer has a desire to actively engage as a member of the Service Club," she said. "I believe it would be best for everyone involved if he were no longer forced into mandated service." She paused for a second, and silence engulfed both the office and the hallways that surrounded it.

"You're telling me that you want me to remove Hikigaya from the club," Hiratsuka-sensei said slowly. "And you want me to do so because he hasn't been attending meetings recently."

"Yes."

"Huh," Hiratsuka-sensei said. "You really are as stuck up as everyone says, aren't you?"

"Pardon?"

It was made obvious by Yukinoshita's tone that she was taken aback by Hiratsuka-sensei's statement. And for that matter, so was I.

I blinked in surprise.

"Do you really think that this is _your_ decision to make? That just because you stroll into my office and blink your pretty eyelashes a few times that I'll just do what you want and what's best for you?"

"I… Huh?" The confusion was evident in Yukinoshita's tone. "Sensei, I don't understand wh—"

"Listen," Hiratuska-sensei said coldly. "I'm the advisor for the Service Club. That means that I get to make any and all executive decisions," she continued tightly. " _You_ on the other hand, don't get a say unless I _say_ you get a say." Her tone was unmistakably sharp. "Where do you get off trying to tell me how to do my job, and whining about how ' _it would be best for everyone if we removed Hikigaya_ '?" She said those last words in a crude imitation of Yukinoshita's voice. "Tell me."

There was a brief pause as Yukinoshita collected her thoughts. "I… " Her normally proud and boisterous tone sounded significantly diminished as she fumbled over her words. "I…apologize if I was being disrespectful Hiratsuka-sensei," she said. "I did not mean to undermine your position as advisor," she apologized quietly. "However, as the advisor, I thought that you would be more familiar with the… issues, that have arisen lately."

In a blinding contrast to Yukinoshita's overly polite tone, Hiratsuka-sensei let out a derisive snort. "Are you implying that I don't know how to do my job?"

The younger girl paused. "No, I didn't mean to imply anything like that," she said quietly. "However, the truth is that you haven't been actively involved with the club recently. Every request that we've received in the past month has been directly from the computer or from meetings with students who have come here on their own accord," she stated calmly. "Perhaps with your busy schedule, you haven't been able to observe what has been happening directly. Once again, I'm not trying to imply anything sensei, I would simply like to discu—"

Hiratuska-sensei cut her off. "You'd better watch that tone Yukinoshita…" she said in a low voice. Yukinoshita, for her part, did not offer an answer to the latent warning, instead electing to keep her silence. The two stayed quiet for a bit before Hiratsuka-sensei sighed and then continued. "What exactly are you trying to say again? Forgive me if I wasn't listening to your prattling all that seriously."

It was anyone's guess as to what Yukinoshita was thinking as she stared at Hiratsuka-sensei. A pregnant silence before, "I have reason to believe that Hikigaya-kun has been occupied with something lately that has interfered with either his ability or motivation to attend club."

I shifted my weight against the wall so that I could both see and hear better.

She continued. "I believe that we…you," she corrected herself. "should dismiss him from mandatory service."

"And what would that achieve?" Hiratsuka-sensei asked shortly.

"I think…" she paused. "It would be within the club's best interests if he were not forced into participating in something that he no longer wishes to engage in. This request is made with all of our interests in mind – not the least of which being Hikigaya-kun's."

Hiratsuka-sensei raised an eyebrow then scoffed so hard, it hurt me to hear it. "I didn't realize that you cared so much about little old Hikigaya." The voice was sharp and sarcastic. "I didn't realize you two were so _close._ "

Once again, I found myself in a state of surprise. It almost sounded as if Hiratsuka-sensei had had some type of personal vendetta against her or something with how harsh her language was. Sure, I was also taken aback when Yukinoshita had said that she'd wanted me removed from active duty, but her clarifications did make sense, even if they did little to assuage the pit in my stomach. From the limited information she had, it sounded like Yukinoshita was making a decision that would theoretically benefit everyone in question. Even though I didn't necessarily agree with it, I could respect it.

Obviously Hiratsuka-sensei didn't exactly share the sentiment, her acerbic tone being an obvious indicator, which brought me back to the question at hand… where did all this hostility come from?

"…No. We're… not." Yukinoshita said. She took a moment to collect herself before speaking again. "But as a peer and fellow club member, I do not think that he should be forced into something that he does not want to do. Especially when it interferes with the synergy of the remaining members. I believe this is what we all want," she concluded softly.

"And _how_ exactly do you know what he wants?" Hiratsuka-sensei asked, her voice sounding shrill. "How would you know a thing about what he's thinking?"

Although she seemed to be taken aback again, Yukinoshita calmly answered, "I... do not claim to understand Hikigaya-kun or even to be his friend," she said. "However, on a basic human level, I believe that I can understand his behavior. And that behavior lately hasn't been normal."

Hiratsuka-sensei scoffed. "Huh, that's rich coming from you," she said under her breath.

A pause before, "I don't understand what you mean."

"What I _mean_ is that you wouldn't know normal if it bit you right in the ass," she said suddenly. Blue eyes widened. "I mean, let's be honest. I know you Yukinoshita. You're a smart girl but your social skills aren't exactly top-notch or anything," she continued offhandedly. " Point is: you never even take a second to try and understand anyone around you, let alone let them get anywhere in striking range of understanding who _you_ are," she said with a challenging glare. "Even so, I probably know you better than you know yourself, and I know that you don't understand a _thing_ about that boy or what he wants," she finished evenly.

Yukinoshita matched her gaze. "I do not mean to be disrespectful sensei, but I highly doubt that you know me as well as you think," Yukinoshita said quietly.

"Hmm. Yeah, that's what they all say." Hiratsuka-sensei remained stoic and folded her arms over her chest.

After a few seconds Yukinoshita said, "If you wouldn't mind, I would like to get back to the topic at hand."

"Sure, little Ms. Ice Queen. Let's do that," Hiratsuka-sensei said sourly. Yukinoshita bristled at the nickname. "So," Hiratsuka-sensei started evenly. "What if I told you that club was actually very important to him? What would you say to that?"

"I…" Yukinoshita seemed at a loss for words as she turned her gaze away from Hiratsuka-sensei's face. "I would tell you that with his excessive absences lately, it doesn't seem that way."

"Well, I can say on good authority that it _is_ important to him, and you're being really selfish by trying to boot him out. He might not show it, but he's a sensitive guy. Trust me when I tell you that I know that for a damn fact."

Unsurprisingly, her words surprised me. It was true that club really _was_ important to me; though that wasn't the issue I took with what she said. What made me pause for a second was Hiratsuka-sensei's confident assertion that the club _did_ mean a lot to me.

I had told her time and time again how I'd wanted to go to club, and how much it meant to me. Well, perhaps not in those words exactly, but I felt that I had gotten my intention across clearly. However, no matter which way or how many times I said it, Hiratsuka-sensei only seemed to grow angrier when that topic was breached. Now, she was speaking as if Yukinoshita was the one who had prevented me from going, when in reality it had been _her_ who had gotten pissy every time I'd gone so far as to mention Yukinoshita or Yuigahama's name.

It all just seemed very, very hypocritical to me.

Yukinoshita paused, her face seeming to scrunch up slightly as she delved into thought. Although I didn't have a perfect view of her face from where I was leaning against the wall, I could tell that her expression tightened suddenly. For whatever reason, it looked like she was trembling slightly. "I see…" she said quietly.

She blinked a few times as she stood there, her figure tensing up so minutely that it was practically unnoticeable. Hiratsuka-sensei stayed seated in her chair with a neutral expression on her face as she regarded Yukinoshita's still form, her arms still folded over her chest. The stare down lasted for quite a while, both women simply regarding each other calmly. Though, what Yukinoshita did next something that I doubt anyone was expecting.

She tilted her head and smiled. "Hmm, I find it sort of funny in a way."

"What?" Hiratsuka-sensei asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Huh? Oh nothing. It's just that I believe that for all of your self-posturing and misguided beliefs about understanding Hikigaya-kun's character, you actually don't understand him anymore than a stranger might," Yukinoshita said lightly, the slightest impression of a smile on her face.

Hiratsuka-sensei's eyes immediately shot open in surprise and her mouth opened to retort, but Yukinoshita didn't let her.

"Contrary to my wishes, I've spent over half of a year in his presence. As a fellow club member, I believe that I've come to know him rather intimately." Her face looked to be completely neutral as she spoke – perhaps even calculatingly so. "Say what you want about my selfishness, or my self-involvement, but the fact remains that through prolonged acquaintance, I have come to know Hikigaya-kun extremely well. In fact, I believe that the bond we possess may even go beyond friendship."

"What?!" Hiratsuka-sensei shot out. "What are you saying you—"

"No offense Hiratsuka-sensei," Yukinoshita silenced her with a raised hand. "But compared to the bond we have created with one another in the past year, your superficial student-teacher relationship with him pales in comparison," she continued. "To compare the two would be like comparing a floor-model Mercedes with a dirty, washed up old Toyota," she finished coldly.

Although her eyes appeared hard and piercing, I thought they looked off somehow, as if they lacked that usual sadistic spark they possessed when she got like this. Her face still looked antagonistic and twisted, but I thought that her smile looked sad somehow.

For my part, I had no idea what Yukinoshita was talking about, and hadn't been able to logically follow what she'd said after her first few words. I felt sheer confusion as I turned to the face of the other woman in the room to gauge her reaction. And that reaction wasn't pretty.

Hiratsuka-sensei's eyes were as wide as saucers when I looked at her, her hand trembling slightly and curling up into what were undoubtedly fists. However, in an instant those wide eyes narrowed dangerously. "Bitch."

"...Excuse me?"

"You heard me. I said you're a bitch," she repeated loudly. Yukinoshita just stood completely still in response, seemingly stunned at Hiratsuka-sensei's malice. "You know what?" Hiratsuka-sensei continued. "I _am_ going to take him out of the club, but listen up, it's not going to be because _you_ asked me to do it. I'll do it just so I can get him away from you, you stupid, selfish bitch."

My eyes widened in shock as I heard those biting, venomous words. This was… I couldn't find the words to describe what I'd just heard come from Hiratsuka-sensei's mouth. Despite all of our fighting, I'd never heard her speak with such malice and anger.

As I peered over the edge of the door and gazed at her twisted, snarling face, I found her completely unrecognizable.

"I see," Yukinoshita said quietly, her eyes suddenly flashing.

I turned my attention to Yukinoshita who gripped the strap of her bag ever so slightly tighter. Her shoulders were trembling harder than they were before. I bit my tongue to prevent myself from saying something and giving myself away.

"If that's all you need, you can kindly get out of my office now. Don't worry, I'll take Hikigaya out of your precious little club." Hiratsuka-sensei was the one to answer. "He's too good for you stupid bitches anyways."

Without another word, Yukinoshita's slender legs began to carry her out of Hiratsuka-sensei's office. I could tell that they too, were shaking—barely, but they were.

She approached the door, and in my stunned state, I found myself unable to move or hide or do anything to get away from where I was currently positioned.

When she paused at the threshold of the door, I felt myself freeze completely.

She stopped when she saw me standing beside the door, her eyes regarding me emotionlessly. Her cheeks were faintly pink, and I thought I could see just the slightest layer of moisture in the corners of her ice-blue eyes.

With a measured blink and the tiniest of smiles, she departed off into the long hallway, her sneakers tapping softly against the polished linoleum.

I wanted to go after her or confront Hiratsuka-sensei about what had just happened or _anything_ , but I simply found myself unable to move from where I stood, feeling almost as if my feet were cemented to the floor.

With a blink, I tossed the red box of chocolates into the garbage bin outside of Hiratsuka-sensei's office before making my way out of the building.

* * *

 **AN:** Curse ffnet for not letting me upload this two nights ago when I finished it. The downtime 'let' me go back and do some edits, and now I don't know if those changes were made for better or worse... Whatever the case, I'm just glad that I finished this chapter. It was a doozy to write. The title is taken from the lyrics of a charming little Last Shadow Puppets song called 'Meeting Place'. As always, thanks for reading everyone. Hopefully the chapter didn't come off as _too_ melodramatic... (Yeah right)


	8. Putting It Off

**Chapter 8: Putting It Off  
**

My eyes opened with a hazy flutter. I looked around the dark room, blinking a few times as I struggled to will myself into wakefulness.

As I did, I vaguely noted that I was lying on a bed. It was rather comfortable and soft… so it most likely wasn't Hiratsuka-sensei's old, springy mattress then. So that meant that I wasn't currently in Hiratsuka-sensei's apartment bedroom.

That only left one possibility: that I was lying in my own bed, in my own room.

It seemed as if I had been doing that a lot more lately – simply escaping to my bed when I felt annoyed or troubled, which admittedly was growing to be more often these days. I found it odd that I found it odd to be waking up in my own bed.

I threw my legs haphazardly over the side, and rubbed at my eyes to clear the blurriness that had formed there. When I finally succeeded, I took a second to simply absorb my surroundings. Judging from how dark my room looked, I deduced that it was most likely around midnight. It wasn't surprising for me to wake up some time in the middle of night to relieve myself or grab a snack from the kitchen before heading back and finishing out the rest of my REM cycles, though oddly enough I didn't particularly feel hungry nor did my bladder feel full.

With a crack of my neck and a lazy stretch of my arms, I regarded the clock at my bedside to confirm what I already knew. But as I did, I found that the red LED numbers displayed there surprised me. It was 7:35. And that was PM.

I blinked once as I grabbed the clock. Huh? I had to have been sleeping for _way_ longer than that. What had I… Oh, that's right. I'd skipped school.

Between my still sleep-muddled mind and the disorientation of waking up so suddenly, it looked like I had completely lost my bearings for a second. I groaned as half-realized memories of the day and the day prior flooded into my thoughts, that confrontation between Hiratsuka-sensei and Yukinoshita lying distinctly at the forefront.

The piercing hostility and those brutal words that had been exchanged between the two in that office still drifted around in my mind, feeling just as fresh as they were when they'd been spoken the day before. Hiratsuka-sensei's cruel, biting words forged to burn and hurt, and Yukinoshita's cold calculation, and finally… the quiet. That strange smile Yukinoshita had worn as she'd calmly walked down that empty hallway.

It still troubled me to think about it.

I'd skipped school today. Like so many times before, I'd escaped into the comfort of my sheets, and what a peaceful reprieve it had been. But like all good things, it wasn't meant to last.

I didn't fancy myself a quitter. I knew that running from my problems was pointless in every possible regard. Simply brushing something off and saving it for later was a tactic that was destined to fail from the start. Shirking your responsibilities and childishly ignoring a problem while willing it to disappear with all your feigned might was a gigantic waste of time. It accomplished nothing and if anything, it just made the problem worse.

I knew that, but I just hadn't been able to help myself this morning when my eyes fluttered open and I was hit with the sudden recollection of the intense conversation that I had overheard yesterday afternoon. Komachi had come into my room to call me up this morning in what was an interesting role reversal, me usually being the one to lug her lazy butt out of bed, but today, I'd simply smashed my pillow over my ears and ignored her. I might even have yelled at her when she kept insisting that I get up. I couldn't remember; the morning was still a blur.

But now as I sat there on my bed, the only source of light in my dark room the sliver of a crescent moon peering in through my windows, I felt a sense of impending dread.

I'd managed to put it off for a day, but I couldn't run from the problem forever. That meant that tomorrow, I'd have to deal with the issues. What exactly those issues were and what exactly I could do to combat those issues, however, I wasn't entirely certain of.

There was no doubt in my mind that I'd have to face Hiratsuka-sensei eventually. She was my girlfriend after all. But even just thinking about that task seemed daunting beyond all belief.

…What could I say to her after witnessing what I did? Her twisted visage as she'd snarled and snapped at Yukinoshita over what had quickly devolved into a verbal showdown, and the venom dripping from her lips as she attacked the other girl so ruthlessly, so personally and mercilessly.

I briefly supposed that I could simply pretend that nothing had happened; after all, it wasn't like she'd seen me or anything. Yukinoshita had at the very end, but I doubt that after a confrontation like that that she would be anywhere close to on speaking terms with Hiratsuka-sensei. She'd probably keep her lips sealed, which meant that if I really wanted to, I could try to just go on as if everything was peachy keen and fine as a fire flower.

But... it wasn't. And I wasn't that good of an actor either. Hiratsuka-sensei was right when she'd said she could read me like a book. If I tried to hide anything from her, she'd quickly notice my uneasiness and would hound me until she managed to pry an answer from my unwilling lips. That only left me one option: confront her and try to pry the answers out of _her_ before she could turn it back around on me _._ As much as I wanted those answers though, I wasn't looking forward to another heated conversation turned argument between us.

 _Especially not after seeing what she was capable of the other day._

That being said, there was another thing to consider of course. Another person.

Yukinoshita definitely hadn't gotten out of that battle royale without sustaining her own injuries. Sure, she'd thrown out some retorts and snide remarks herself, but if that sad smile in the hall was anything to go by, Hiratsuka-sensei's words seemed to have gotten to her as well. And as well they should have. They weren't particularly nice ones.

I didn't know what I was going to do about her though. She had seen me eavesdropping out in the hallway, so she had probably guessed and guessed correctly that I had been listening in on their entire conversation. Did that I mean that I should go confront her and apologize on Hiratsuka-sensei's behalf? Or would it be more appropriate if I simply tried to ignore her for the next few weeks and hoped things would settle themselves?

I already knew the answer to that question. I'd have to confront her and offer some crappy half-hearted apologies for being the cause of all that drama, and maybe try to mend things somehow without giving anything away.

However, there was something else too; another reason that necessitated a conversation with her.

In that final, cold monologue she'd delivered, she'd said some things that were, as far as I knew, completely false.

More to our relationship than just friendship…

I had no idea where that came from, or why she thought that. With my excessive absences in club lately – a fact that she'd made incredibly clear during that conversation – we hadn't seen each other very often, if at all. If we'd ever been close to being friends, the growing gap that had formed between us after I had started seeing Hiratsuka-sensei hadn't helped matters much. I didn't think we were friends now, and to that end, certainly nothing _more_ than friends.

The question remained, then: why had Yukinoshita implied that there was something more between us when it was obvious that there wasn't?

I'd have to ask her myself.

I sat on the edge of the bed for a while; simply mulling over how I would approach these sensitive topics when the time came. I remained there for a while, my brain churning out hundreds of different scenarios, and though they were all different in one way or another, they all unfailingly ended in the same way – with someone getting hurt.

When a fair amount of time and silent introspection had passed, I found my eyes growing tired once more. Despite the seemingly absurd amounts of sleep I had gotten in the past two days, I still felt incredibly drained and exhausted, my energy seeming only to last me as long as it took to wake up before ebbing out again.

With a furling of covers, I let my body sink into my plush bed. I knew I would have to deal with those issues eventually, but as I lay there, I just couldn't bring myself to care.

They would have to wait until I woke up.

* * *

' _Hikigaya. This really isnt funny anymore. Where the hell have you been?'_

With a click, I sent my phone into sleep mode. That message had been sent yesterday night sometime around nine o'clock. It was one of the many that Hiratsuka-sensei had sent me after not having heard from me in a few days.

Today was the day. I figured I could only avoid her for so long, so today I was choosing to go back to school where a run-in with her would be inevitable.

In a way, I was sort of relieved that I would see her there at school. At least there, we wouldn't be forced to discuss anything too important considering all the prying ears of the students around us. The main issue would have to wait until we got back to her apartment or made it somewhere more private. That thought gave me some relief, but not much.

Slipping my phone into my pocket, I walked through the hallway of Sobu's second level and straight into the classroom of 2F. I saw Hiratsuka-sensei grading some papers at her desk, but I kept my eyes forward and my gaze off her.

When I reached my seat, I sat down to the sight of two piercing grey eyes boring into me from the front. She was staring at me from her desk, one hand grasping a pen, and the other already wrapping up lightly into a fist. Unsurprisingly, she looked pretty upset.

I did my best to ignore that heated glance, and instead focused on a book that I'd pulled out from my bag. After a few moments, I noticed that her gaze had finally turned away and I unconsciously let out a sigh of relief.

She stood and with a few brusque words on her behalf, class began.

I tried my best to keep my eyes fixed on my lap, but it appeared that Hiratsuka-sensei planned on doing the exact opposite. Throughout the class's duration, I felt her gaze shift to me on multiple occasions, her eyes gleaming cold with contempt each and every time.

Her harsh voice called on me more than once, but luckily for me, the novel we were covering was one that I'd read and analyzed in my free time, so I was able to answer her questions without faltering. She didn't seem too pleased with this, and instead of complimenting me for my participation and knowledge, she merely grunted when I muttered the correct answers.

In a way, she was right to be angry with me. For all she knew, I'd willingly ditched her that day after I'd gone to club and every day subsequently without giving her any prior notice or good excuse. With the knowledge she possessed, it really did seem like _I_ was the one in the wrong here. However, we both knew inside that that wasn't strictly true.

When class ended and everyone began filtering out of the room, I heard a distinct, feminine voice call out to me.

"Hikigaya. Come over here please."

My hand paused on my bag, but I gave a curt nod. Sighing out tepidly through my nostrils, I made my way over to her desk, stopping a few paces in front of it when I got close enough. I kept my expression neutral, and didn't offer anything to start, expecting instead for her to start the conversation. I wanted to see what she'd have to say, after all.

"Where the hell have you been?" she growled quietly, making sure to punctuate each syllable with an unmistakable note of aggression.

There were still a few students left in the class, idly chatting while sitting on the desks, so she kept her voice low.

Any guilt that I might've held from earlier seemed to evaporate as I looked at her slightly twisted features. They reminded me of her snarling visage from a few days earlier.

"Nowhere…" I deflected unconvincingly.

Her eyes narrowed. "Nowhere? Are you kidding? After ignoring me for the better part of a week, _that's_ what you have to say to me?"

I contemplated offering her a halfhearted shrug, but even I thought that was a little too cruel. With my mixed feelings churning away inside of me, I found it difficult to properly respond to her question.

"You're being kind of loud."

She blinked as she realized that one or two of the students that were still in the room had thrown curious glances towards the front. She leaned backwards a little bit and idly brushed at some loose dust that sat on her coat. "Oh, we're going to talk about this later. Don't think for a second that we're done here."

"Yeah. I know," I answered.

She regarded me for a second, her eyes seeming to search my features for the tiniest hint of guilt, before relaxing ever so slightly. "My apartment. 4 o'clock." Her voice had quieted to a hard whisper. I could still hear the edges in it, but volume-wise, it was low enough not to be heard. "And so help me God if you skip out again…"

I think I should have been nervous upon hearing that she wanted to have a one-on-one discussion with me, but I guess because I figured it was only a matter of time until she asked about something like this, I was able to offer a simple affirmation.

"…Alright. I'll see you then."

She looked at me with that same hard expression again, and then gave a stiff nod.

With the conclusion of our conversation, I grabbed my bag and left the classroom.

* * *

 **AN:** Well, it certainly has been a while hasn't it? I'm really sorry for not updating in so long, but know that it wasn't for wont of trying. I wish I could blame it _all_ on my incredibly busy school schedule this semester, but the lack of updates is also due to writer's block and in some small part, my own laziness. That being said, I'm still having some issues writing one particular scene so I decided to cut off part of what I originally had as chapter 8 and publish it as a standalone. That's this chapter. I have a lot more content for chapter 9 already written, but classes are actually hitting their difficulty apex right about now so I don't know if I'll be able to make that final push and get the next chapter out all that soon. Though, one thing I can promise is that once winter break finally comes, I'll be resuming my writing in full force (hopefully for MOL too!). But until then, thanks for reading and keeping up with the story.


	9. Meeting Place

**Chapter 9: Meeting Place  
**

My hand hovered above the wooden door.

Hadn't I been in this exact same position before? My hand hovered slightly above a door that I didn't really want to enter, but knew I had to anyways? Yeah, a few times actually.

The only difference now was that this door wasn't the entrance to a room in the special building; instead it was the electronically locked passageway into a middle-class apartment in the greater Chiba area.

I chuckled dryly at the irony. At this point, I felt like I'd rather deal with a hundred awkward club meetings than do what I was about to do.

How the grass always seemed to be greener…

I sighed.

Being a realist meant that you saw situations for how they were going to be and not how you'd like them to be. I wanted to believe that this whole situation could be discussed calmly and rationally by two adults and that we could figure out our feelings and everything after coming clean and baring our souls to one another, but…

But I knew that wasn't going to happen. It might have been possible were the two individuals in question two completely different people, but that wasn't the case. I could only see this devolving into an argument, and subsequently a fight. The only thing I could do at that point would be to hope that the damage from the blowback would be minimal.

I let out a breath and wrapped my knuckles on the door.

After a moment, it opened with a hydraulic hiss and exposed a tired looking Hiratsuka-sensei on the other side.

"Yo."

"Get in."

I complied, and walked into the familiar apartment living room. It looked pretty much the same as I'd remembered it, save for a few more empty cans of beer than normal spread out around the counters and table surfaces.

After motioning for me to sit down on her small couch, she walked over to the fridge and returned with two cans of yebisu beer.

"Want one?" she muttered.

I contemplated her offer for a second before shrugging. I supposed it wouldn't hurt to bolster up my own courage with that of the liquid variety.

"Sure."

She tossed it to me and we both took a sip after pulling on the tabs.

Instead of sitting down, Hiratsuka-sensei leaned against the corner of the counter, one hand stuffed into her pants pocket.

"So," she started. "Now that we're all comfy, would you mind explaining why the hell you've been avoiding me all week?"

Judging from her tone, it seemed like her patience was running thin today. However, that was to be expected given the circumstances.

I didn't want to flat out tell her the real reason for my absences lately, but I felt that telling her a boldfaced lie wouldn't be an effective strategy either. She wasn't lying when she said that she was good at reading me… Her Hikigaya-vision really was second-to-none, it was scary actually.

Either way, I settled on responding in as noncommittal a way as possible.

"Ah… I don't know. I've just been busy with some things I guess."

She gave a half-lidded glare in response to my answer, one that clearly communicated that she wasn't in the mood for any sort of antics.

"Don't mess around Hikigaya," she said lowly. "I'm being serious here."

Her expression said it all. Unfaltering seriousness with a slight hint of turmoil behind her eyes.

I felt a wave of guilt surge through me, but even so, almost as quickly as it came, that guilt was dulled as an image of a snarling Hiratsuka-sensei suddenly flashed into my mind. I had to physically fight back a chill at the imagined sight.

I deliberated on what to say for a second before settling on a quiet apology. "…Right. Sorry."

She glanced sideways at me, almost as if to check my expression for sincerity. Out of the corner of my vision, I could see her eyes waver slightly before finally relaxing. She let out a heavy sigh.

"Look Hikigaya, I'm not stupid," she eventually said. "I know that what we have isn't what most people might call a normal relationship… and I know that I haven't been the best or even most receptive girlfriend lately..." I was tempted to say something out of agreement, but I stopped myself before the words could come out.

"But what you did… Just blowing me off for a week without giving me any kind of heads up or explanation… That's just… That's _really_ towing the line. I don't know what else to call it," she breathed out emotionally. Her fingers that were holding the can of beer wrapped around hard enough to make a sound.

The guilt that hit me as I heard those words was palpable, and unlike before, it didn't dissipate immediately or even at all. Instead, it lingered in my stomach as I stared at the floor.

I recall saying similar words to Hiratsuka-sensei when she refused to talk to me after our kiss on the night of the Autumn Festival. It had felt horrible to be ignored so completely, to not even have a chance to communicate or say what was on my mind. She must've felt the exact same way now that I did back then…

"Ah…"

I opened my mouth and a pathetic sound ended up coming out.

I really didn't know what to say. There were so many things on my mind, but I felt like none of them were the right thing to say at that moment. Yes, it was my fault that I had blown her off for so long, and I really did feel guilty about it… but there were other things to consider here.

What about Yukinoshita? …What about what I saw? What about the fact that Hiratsuka-sensei had hid what had happened from me?

Although, I suppose that last one wasn't technically her fault given that I was the one who had been avoiding her. It's not like she'd had much of a chance to tell me.

Even so, I was clueless about how to proceed and how best to eventually address the issue that needed addressing. How was one supposed to broach a time bomb without expecting to get flattened in the process?

I inwardly sighed. Regardless, where it applied to the topic at hand, I was in the wrong. At the very least, I owed her an apology.

Swallowing my uneasiness with a gulp, I eventually spoke. "Yeah. I know I should've returned your calls," I said weakly. "…Sorry."

Upon hearing those apologetic words, Hiratsuka-sensei grew quiet for a moment and her head turned towards me. Although my own gaze was still turned at my shoes, I could feel the unmistakable prickle of eyes fixed upon me.

Eventually the shuffling of clothing and a soft sigh was heard. "You do sound like you mean it…"

"I do," I said honestly.

I took the opportunity to glance at her out of the corner of my eye. She had straightened up somewhat and her face looked a little bit more relaxed, but there was still weariness there.

"…Well, I'm glad that you're sorry. That's a start," she began. "But I don't think it would be right if we were to leave things as they are. There's still too much that hasn't been said."

After saying this, she straightened up her posture, and then let out a long breath through her nostrils.

"It's not that I particularly enjoy starting painful conversations, but if we don't talk about everything now, the issue is going to fester like a bad wound," she said. This time, she looked straight at me and I couldn't bring myself to peel my eyes from her intense gaze. "Relationships are built on trust and communication, Hikigaya. You can be upset or even plain snarling angry, but if there's no chance to talk about the issue then nothing's ever going to get solved. You know that right?"

Human communication… It never was one of my strong suits, and based on Hiratsuka-sensei's past track record with relationships, I doubted it was one of her specialties either.

Still, what she said was true. If the past few weeks of me avoiding Hiratsuka-sensei proved anything, it was that a lack of communication didn't do anything even remotely positive for a relationship. All that tip-toeing around and purposely dodging her calls made the situation worse, if anything.

For Hiratsuka-sensei, it probably made her paranoid and frustrated that her attempts at contacting me were completely denied without explanation. As for me, all that time spent away from her, all that time spent without knowing Hiratsuka-sensei's side of the story… I'm sure it only exacerbated the uneasy feelings I had towards her now.

Realizing that I couldn't keep her waiting forever, I eventually swallowed the lump that had formed in my throat and gave a stiff nod.

Hiratsuka-sensei let out another breath and closed her eyes.

"Okay. At least we can both agree on that," she breathed. "Let's start at the top then. What's the real reason you've been avoiding me all week, Hikigaya?" she asked with a serious expression crossing her features.

This time, it was my turn to close my eyes. This was the so called moment of truth... the reason for both of our anxieties in the past week and a half.

The inevitable discussion of this topic had the potential to destroy the tenuous something that we had created… and then some. Whatever fragile relationship we'd started might be snuffed out in an instant if this was all handled incorrectly. Put simply, this certainly wasn't something to be taken lightly.

…Ah, screw it.

"The conversation you had with Yukinoshita in the teacher's lounge last week? I heard everything," I said rather quickly and practically all at once.

In those moments following my rather candid confession, time seemed to slow down... at least for me. I couldn't say I knew what Hiratsuka-sensei was thinking as she heard and registered my words.

The breath that I had sucked in seemed to stay lodged in my lungs as I watched Hiratsuka-sensei's face for a response.

At first, confusion. Then, slowly but surely, like roots spreading and entangling a forest floor, shock etched itself in her face.

The words that came out of her mouth next were flustered and betrayed her surprise.

"…My conversation with Yukinoshita? What are you talking about? I talked with her a number of times last week… You'll need to be more specific…"

There were few things in life that I could say that I was _truly_ good at.

Sure, I was decent in humanities and I could type 120 words per minute on the computer. I was a decent shot in online fps games and I was good at taking orders at the part time job I held two summers ago. I was an above average cook and I could make a decent batch of coffee if I really had to. I was okay at all these things, but never extraordinary.

However, there always _was_ one thing that I could confidently say that I was gifted at—a skill that I believed I had truly mastered over years of study and refinement.

Human observation.

And all of those instincts and skills I had built up throughout my life from studying people and the minutiae of their behaviors, they were all screaming at me: this is what a cornered animal looks like. This is someone, undeniably, on the defense.

I looked at Hiratsuka-sensei's grim expression before continuing.

"I heard what you guys were talking about. I know that Yukinoshita wants me out of the club, and I heard what happened after."

Truth be told, I was more than tired of all the dancing around I'd been doing with Hiratsuka-sensei lately. Probably because I felt so fed up with all this secrecy and inward contemplation, I wanted to put everything on the table at once and do so in as straightforward a way as possible. That's why I felt I should come out straight with the truth.

"Oh… I see…" she said, nearly under her breath. Her expression became unreadable to me. Her mouth was pulled tight in a hard line, and while I could tell that her eyes were deep in thought, it was a shot in the dark as to what those thoughts actually were.

"Yeah…" I eventually said, while leaning further back into the cushions of her couch. I sat there awkwardly while fiddling with the can of beer in my hands.

Although she had offered that cryptic statement of understanding, it seemed as if either she didn't have anything to say beyond that, or she was waiting for me to say something.

After a few moments had passed and silence still hung in the air, I decided that I should offer something to break that quiet. However, before I could, I heard a question being uttered.

"…So," her low voice started. "…you agree with me then right?"

Upon hearing those words, my eyes shot up towards Hiratsuka-sensei's face and I registered her markedly different expression. While before, her face looked grim and drawn, now she looked stern and even… I couldn't quite place it, but she looked a bit… irritated.

"Agree with you? What do you mean?" I asked in my state of surprise.

"That you're better off without that manipulative little bitch bossing you around," Hiratsuka-sensei answered.

My eyes widened at her venom-tinged words.

Whoa, I wasn't looking for a repeat performance here…

"Erm… maybe you should take it easy with the name calling," I said uneasily.

Hiratsuka-sensei glared at me out of the corner of her eye. She gave a low scoff.

"After hearing everything she said, you're seriously going to defend her?"

"No, it's not that I'm defending her…" I said as I struggled to pick the correct words. "…It's just that name calling isn't going to accomplish anything here." I swallowed the dryness in my throat.

I didn't know how it had so suddenly come to this. I felt disoriented, like the world had shifted on its head.

Hiratsuka-sensei had seemed taken aback when I'd revealed that I'd been witness to her conversation with Yukinoshita… I thought for sure that she would try to make an excuse or deny it or something… But instead, now she was going on the offensive. Clearly, she was admitting to her actions, but instead of trying to apologize for them, she was obstinately standing behind them.

I didn't know how to react.

"You're wrong about that one, Hikigaya. What it accomplishes is that it makes me feel better," she said as she pulled out and lit a cigarette.

' _Real mature sensei…'_ I couldn't help but think inwardly.

Normally, me calling Hiratsuka-sensei out for her immaturity was something that we both might be able to laugh over, but in this case, it felt far more contemptible than humorous.

"Whatever, that's beside the point anyways. My original question still stands: do you agree with me?" she said with a puff of her cigarette.

My nose twitched at the smell of smoke. I sighed. "I don't know if I'd call her manipulative..." I began. "…But it was a pretty crappy thing for her to do, coming to you before talking about it with me first," I eventually said.

I wasn't going to lie. I didn't know what Yukinoshita's true intentions were when she'd come to Hiratsuka-sensei to ask to remove me from the Service Club, but even if she really did have my interests at heart, what she did sure as hell felt like a backstab. I couldn't say that I had purely positive feelings towards her at this point either.

"See! I knew you'd agree with me," Hiratsuka-sensei exclaimed, perhaps a little too eagerly. "You've been in the club for a while now, but I've been Yukinoshita's counselor for two years. You don't know her like I do." She took another drag of her cigarette before continuing. "She may put up a confident front, but deep down she's insecure, and that insecurity leads to volatility… She's always been like that. She's unsure of herself so she lashes out at other people to try to put them on her level. Don't take it personally, Hikigaya."

Although it was brief, I noticed the shadow of a grimace cross Hiratsuka-sensei's face for a fraction of a second. She let out a cough and pounded her chest once.

"Anyways, that's done and over with. As you heard, I took you out of the club. You won't have to deal with that mess anymore."

"I guess…" I muttered.

 _I wouldn't have to deal with that mess anymore huh…_

I took a second to appreciate what all of this meant. As things stood, my membership as a Service Club volunteer was now officially revoked and ended. I don't know if it was Yukinoshita or Hiratsuka-sensei that was ultimately responsible for that revocation, but I was no longer part of that group… It was a tie that had been severed.

I felt a sting of sadness wash over me, but I did my best to brush it off. Maybe Hiratsuka-sensei was right… Maybe I was better off without the club and without the presence of those other two in my life…

I mean, I suppose it wasn't like Yukinoshita or Yuigahama _really_ needed me or anything right..? They'd gotten along fine without me the past month or two, and I felt confident that they'd be able to handle any new issues that might end up coming their way. Perhaps… In the end, I had simply grown superfluous.

Fine then. Hiratsuka-sensei was right. That was that.

I let out a conclusive breath and opened my eyes.

Still. Even with that said, there were still other things that I felt needed to be addressed.

"…Even if she was being rude though, I don't think you should've talked to Yukinoshita that way. You were way too harsh," I said.

Hiratsuka-sensei turned to me suddenly, as if she weren't at all expecting me to say something like that.

"Me? Are you kidding? I…" she started. Although it clearly seemed like Hiratsuka-sensei was once again entering a defensive stance, as she looked at me, the fire that sparked in her eyes eventually faded and she let out a deep sigh. "Alright…" she breathed. "I _may_ have gotten a bit carried away when I was speaking to her that day. I guess that wasn't an acceptable way for a teacher to speak to a student… regardless of the circumstances," she added under her breath.

Although her statement was qualifying, hearing it did make me feel a little bit better. I couldn't ever hope to understand why Hiratsuka-sensei had initially exploded at Yukinoshita the way she did, but at the very least she could admit that she'd made a mistake.

I took the opportunity to really look at Hiratsuka-sensei.

Outwardly, she was familiar to me… Her long, silky black hair, her hard but feminine features, and her slightly dirty lab coat. All of these things were familiar to me as Hiratsuka-sensei—as my immature teacher who had problems with men, and more recently, as my girlfriend who was wild in bed and who laughed a little bit too hard at lame old shounen animes.

But in the end, it wasn't her physical features that gave me pause… Instead, it was what laid behind those features that caught me off guard.

I thought I'd had somewhat of a grasp on her personality after spending so much time in her presence, but it turned out that I might not have comprehended much at all. There was a lot under the surface that I simply hadn't seen.

I'd always known that Hiratsuka-sensei had an edge to her. To put it into simple terms, any teacher who's capable of threatening her student with physical punishments, half-jokingly or not, can already be identified as an outlier among educational professionals. To top that off, she has quite the mouth for a lady of her age and profession, and she also sports some particularly nasty habits. Ones that any sane parent would wag their finger at her for.

Essentially, Hiratsuka-sensei was a teacher who talked rough, smoked like a chimney, and drank like a fish. She didn't take shit from anyone and she was tough… Again, I admired these aspects of her. I admired that edge.

However, I never knew that that side of her went beyond the realms of simple capability and reserved strength. Instead, it apparently could extend towards the realm of… I didn't know the word for it. Pettiness? Malice?

…Sadism?

The side of her I'd seen when she was arguing with Yukinoshita was something that made me—if not afraid—then at the very least more weary of her than I felt comfortable being.

And that didn't make me feel good at all.

I sighed, and thought back to the conversation at hand.

In conclusion, it all boiled down to this.

Hiratsuka-sensei had let me know how she felt. Although I couldn't say that I agreed at all with her methods or how she had handled the situation, I had no choice but to accept her reasons and go from there.

Although I hadn't known that this side of her had existed, the fact of the matter was that it did. It did, and I was still committed to that person that that side belonged to, after all.

I'd been the one to say those infamous words back then.

" _I want to try."_

I had started this… I had selfishly told her that I had wanted to see where this led, even when she had begged me to reconsider.

…This, whatever this was, we were in it together. It wasn't my call to end things.

So, I would stick by Hiratsuka-sensei's side and accept her for who she was… even if that person did make me feel uneasy.

"…So, I guess we've both gotten the answers we've been searching for these past few weeks then, haven't we?" Hiratsuka-sensei asked after a period of silence.

I snapped out of my daze and nodded.

"Yeah. I guess we have."

She nodded.

"So… are there any other things we should talk about?" Hiratsuka-sensei played with the cigarette in her hand, almost nervously. "…Or are we good?" she asked carefully.

Sure, I felt like there were a lot more things to discuss, and there were a lot more issues that should be hammered out here while we had the chance, but… But, Hiratsuka-sensei had said her piece. She had stated her position clearly and in plain Japanese. Hitting her with the third degree now would serve absolutely no purpose. If anything, it would make this terrible situation evenworse and would strain things between us even further.

"…We're good," I eventually answered.

She let out a loud sigh of relief. "Okay. Thank God. That heavy atmosphere was starting to choke the life out of me," she said as she very abruptly and quickly closed the distance between us and plopped down on the couch next to me. I flinched.

She wrapped one of her arms slightly around me and I couldn't help but shiver a bit under her touch.

"What's wrong? Are you cold?" she asked.

"No. No, I'm just not feeling so well," I answered vaguely. "…Must be all the exam studying getting to me I guess."

She retracted her arm a bit and looked at me curiously. "So even after all this, you've still been keeping up with your studies huh?" she let out a small laugh. "Not bad Hikigaya, not bad. I'm a little impressed actually." She sat upright on the couch, perching one arm up against the back. "Your future is pretty important, after all."

"You don't need to remind me. My parents already do that every day," I answered.

She chuckled before sighing, "I guess that means you're not down for some hot make up sex then?"

I found myself coughing at that sudden, unexpected statement before regaining my bearings. "…Not tonight. Some other time, maybe."

She let out a small pout, but nodded. "Fine. I don't want to push you if you're not feeling up to it," she said. "But trust me when I say it… Make up sex makes everything better. There's nothing better than going a round after hating someone's guts for a week."

I blinked once. For some reason, her statement made my palms itch.

I stood up from the couch and grabbed my school bag off the floor.

I wasn't lying when I'd told her that I was feeling a little bit queasy. Granted, it wasn't necessarily from the studying I'd been doing lately, but still. It wasn't a total lie.

As I walked to the front door to show myself out, I found myself stopped by a question.

"Hikigaya…" Hiratsuka-sensei's voice started. "Tell me… Are we really good?"

The expression that she wore on her face displayed vulnerability so evident and visible that I found myself struck speechless for a second. This was a genuine question on her part, and I could tell that the only thing she was looking for in that moment was the truth and that alone.

I nodded. "Yeah, we're good."

And it was true. At least, as true as it could be.

"Good."

After I heard that word, I shut the door to her apartment.

* * *

I was breathing heavily as I glided down the dusk-bathed street on my bicycle. The air was cold and as my fingertips and neck began to burn from exposure, I realized that I wasn't at all dressed properly for the weather.

I'd left Hiratsuka-sensei's apartment roughly fifteen minutes ago and now I was biking through one of the busier shopping districts of downtown Chiba on my way back home. As I passed by the soft, inviting glow of one of my favorite downtown coffee shops, I found my eye instinctively drawn to something familiar.

In the dim yellow lighting of that store, a curtain of fine black hair and piercing blue eyes stared out at me over the brim of a leather wrapped book.

I screeched my bicycle to a halt and stared back.

In that moment, I realized how truly cold it was outside.

...I decided I could spare a few moments to stop for a drink at my favorite café.

* * *

 **AN:** Hey readers, it's been a long time since the last update... again. To be honest, I had a really hard time deciding on where the story should head after the events of chapter seven. That was a sort of a turning point, and from there I couldn't decide what I wanted to happen next. One day, one path would make perfect sense to me and the next, I wanted the complete opposite to happen. As a result, I had to struggle and rewrite this chapter many times before I felt reasonably satisfied with it. Apologies to all the readers who have been waiting so long for this new chapter, but I hope you guys enjoyed reading it. I don't want to raise any false hope with optimistic promises but I hope to get the next chapter out soon.


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